Curses can be a Blessing
by Kuugen the Fox
Summary: Elma's gluttony once more got the better of her and she finds out the hard way that offending the gods of the mortal world is not something even a dragon can just shrug off. Thankfully, among her friends is one that used to be a goddess herself and she is always willing to help out. Things take a rather unexpected turn when she does help out, however.
1. Chapter 1

_4 Weeks ago_

"So you ate a god's offering? I'm not surprised you got cursed." Tohru was happily working in the kitchen part of the living room while everyone else, Kobayashi, Fafnir and Elma, were in the living room proper.

"T-They were the special limited time double hazelnut filling hand-kneaded cream puffs from that store by the station where they use a special flour for the dough that gives them an extra light fluffiness! They were just going to waste!" Elma defended herself.

"Trespassing on a god's domain. How foolish." Fafnir squatted down next to Elma and tried touching the deep purple blindfold with the ancient Japanese symbols on it. A number of black sparks crackled off of it and repelled the cursed dragon. "This is a **pathetically** simple curse."

"So you can remove it?" Elma sounded jubilant already. If not for her having Kobayashi's cellphone number and getting her to pick her up, she would still be walking around blind in at the outskirts of town.

"I will have to tear out your eyes with it."

"Please don't." Kobayashi had been watching the event unfold with increasing worry. "Isn't there another way you can remove it?"

"You don't know anything about curses, do you, human? A curse's power is directly proportional to its simplicity. A curse like this, with a singular purpose and finite duration is among the most powerful curses that can be cast. Add to that the matter that this was cast by a deity, no matter how scarcely worshiped, and it becomes impossible to remove without causing damage to the cursed."

"But there is always stuff in legends about using rituals to break curses." Kobayashi wanted to help Elma. _It's going to be a drag to explain why she is not coming to work on monday._

"Legends are legends. They don't matter in reality." Fafnir got up. "If you don't want me to break the curse by force then I am leaving. I still have 218 quest drops to obtain to finish the summer time extravaganza special fireworks mission set." _I only came by in the first place because Takiya asked me to as a favor._

 _What is he talking about?_ Kobayashi didn't want to try and reason with Fafnir. "Tohru can you do something about the curse?"

"If Fafnir-san can't break it without collateral, I probably can't break it at all." Tohru was not particularly inclined to help Elma. Since Kobayashi was asking her, she would have done it anyway to please her, but she just really couldn't.

"Then what am I gonna do?!" Elma tried to get up, didn't notice that her knees were under the table and nearly knocked over the table as she got up. "Ah, I'm so sorry!"

"Please just stay put." Kobayashi got up instead. "If a god put the curse on her, another god might be able to lift it, right? Or the same one, at least." Walking towards the entrance, Kobayashi turned around once more. "I'm going to the Kichijoten temple and- ah." She realized something. "We do all know a _former_ goddess, don't we?"

"Oh, that's a splendid idea, Kobayashi-san!"

And so, about fifteen minutes later, Lucoa was welcomed into their apartment, wearing the same black sweater and white pants that had replaced her old outfit a while ago, on Kobayashi's recommendation. "I came because you asked me for my help and I am quite a bit in your debt, so what- Elma, I didn't know you enjoyed fetish play like that."

"This is not a fetish!" Elma's face devolved into an overgrown tomato beneath the blindfold and she was quite happy she couldn't see anyone else right now.

"She stole a food offering at the Kichijoten temple and got herself cursed." Kobayashi explained things to Lucoa in abbreviated form. "You used to be a goddess and so I thought- what's wrong?"

"Ah… it's a bit of a sore point. _Former_ goddess." Lucoa was normally a pretty easy-going person but confronting this issue of her social standing never went all that well. "But I get it. You thought I could break the curse?"

"We'll treat you to dinner." Kobayashi offered and Lucoa just waved her off.

"I already owe you. If I can help, I will." Sitting down next to Elma, Lucoa exerted some of her powers to get a better feel of the curse. "Oh, this could be problematic."

"That Fafnir already said he can break it but it'll tear out my eyes! Don't even think about something like that!"

"I wouldn't do something so crude. I can sense what kind of curse this is, and I can probably break it, but… it looks like breaking it will cause _something_ to happen." Lucoa looked at Kobayashi with her otherworldly heterochromia eyes. "What kind of god cursed her?"

"She was at a Kichijoten temple so it's almost certainly her… wait..." Kobayashi felt a dreadful realization come over her. "This means that the gods that have temples all over the country are actually real, doesn't it?"

"Oh, you thought they weren't?" Lucoa was fairly amused by this. "So what kind of god is Kichijoten?"

"A goddess. She's one of the seven gods of fortune around here. I… think mostly teenage girls pray to her for success in love. There's probably some adult women doing that, too." Kobayashi unusual noticed movement from the kitchen as she explained. "Tohru?"

"I'll be right back! I'm just going to this Kichijoten temple real quick!"

"Tohru… even if she is actually real, I don't think she will bless a dragon. And I'm not sure what you're hoping she will do since I do know how you feel."

Lucoa raised her hand, just a little. "Uhm… so, should I try to break the curse? I am pretty sure it won't cause her any discomfort, at least not physically."

"Hm, yes, please." Kobayashi quickly changed her mind. "Ah, but please not in here! If there's some sort of explosion, it'll be a mess."

"It's not that kind of curse, but sure." Lucoa turned back towards Elma, realizing that she couldn't possibly walk anywhere like that. And transforming into dragon form could have some really unexpected consequences while being cursed. Putting one arm behind Elma's back and the other right behind her knees, she lifted the harmony dragon up. "You're lighter than I expected. I guess all that eating isn't affecting you at all."

Elma didn't really feel anything in particular when Lucoa lifted her up. "I understand that this is probably quicker, but you could have simply directed me outside or to the roof."

"We'll go to the roof."

And so, about ninety seconds later, the group, including Kobayashi and Tohru, were on the roof. The only one that had been suspiciously absent the entire time was Kanna, who was having a sleep over at Saikawa's place.

Elma sat on her knees roughly in the center of the roof, surrounded by empty space, and even further out chain fences. "Okay, I'll break the curse. I really don't know what is going to happen exactly but I can tell that it isn't some kind of dangerous effect. Consider the nature of the goddess that cursed you, you will probably have some really bad luck in love for a while."

"My only love is food." Elma gasped. "Does that mean I won't be able to taste anything?!"

Kobayashi looked a bit amused. "I don't think a goddess wants to account for strange love like that."

"There's nothing strange about-" Elma could see again. Lucoa had covered her hand in formless, translucent energy and simply used her index finger to cut through the blindfold right above Elma's nose. "I don't feel any different. Quick, someone give me something to eat! I'm sure I heard Tohru make dinner earlier!"

"That's strange. I was sure that there had to be some sort of effe-" Lucoa and Elma alike were engulfed in a massive red explosion, that immediately turned into a red cloud, that smelled extremely strongly like saffron for some reason. Both of them coughed a whole lot but staggered out of the cloud in one piece. "That's a very strange effect," Lucoa said in-between fits of coughing.

"Is that… saffron?" Kobayashi looked at the ground, where the red cloud was now settling, and squatted to touch it with her finger. "It is. I don't recall Kichijoten being related to that."

"Do you think the part that isn't touching the ground is still usable?" Tohru bend down and tried the spice after picking some up with her finger. "It tastes okay at least."

"We should take part of it inside… but we can't leave the rest up here either." Kobayashi noticed that she **hadn't** noticed Lucoa or Elma for over a minute now. Looking around, she found Elma figuratively hanging from Lucoa, arms around the blonde's neck and an idiotically happy smile on her face.

"Lucoa~." Elma sounded drunk.

"Is this…?" Kobayashi made an educated guess.

Lucoa looked only mildly bothered and far from being disturbed or uncomfortable. "It looks like the curse was set up in such a way that she would fall unconditionally in love with whoever broke it. Love spells never last very long, but this is still a problem."

"Having her come to work like this..."

"Is going to be difficult. But that is not what I meant. I haven't mentioned this to anyone yet, but I was kind of banned from the premises of Shouta-kun's house by his parents for some sort of deviant transgression… I've been meaning to ask what that could have been but I happened upon an old acquaintance and lost track of time." Mildly annoyed now by having Elma hang on her like a wet bag of flour, Lucoa picked her up just as she did not even five minutes ago. Elma rubbed her left cheek against Lucoa's shoulder like it was the most fun thing to do in all the universe.

"So you have nowhere to stay. I'm sorry to say, but we absolutely do not have space to let anyone else stay here." Kobayashi couldn't imagine having Elma and Tohru under the same roof. It would be ragnarok.

"Elma is gonna follow you to the ends of the earth, so why don't you go there?" Tohru shrugged the whole matter off. Lucoa was a close acquaintance, but Elma was just a close annoyance instead.

"Tohru." Kobayashi reminded her that she didn't like it when she spoke like that.

"Yes, yes. I'm sorry. But Elma has her own place to live, doesn't she?"

"Come to think of it..." Kobayashi looked at Lucoa and figured that that would be the obvious place to crash at.

"You can stay at my place **forever** , Lucoa!" Elma sounded so happy that it was almost gross for everyone that was listening.

"Are you going to be… okay?" _I'm fine with dealing with Tohru, but I don't know anything about Lucoa's preferences_.

"I actually don't mind that much. I do think I understand better how you feel, Kobayashi-san."

"I am not **that** clingy!" Tohru was quick to become defensive.

"I'll leave you two to it then." Lucoa didn't want to stand around until they realized that there was still several kilos of saffron on the roof and **someone** had to get rid of it. Carrying Elma down the stairs, Lucoa quickly got tired of doing just that and let Elma down. "You can cling to my arm, if you are going to walk on your own."

"Whatever you ask of me, darling!"

 _Current Day_

"Lucoa! Did you see my _Estrago_ pudding? You didn't eat it, right?!" Elma shouted, her nose deep in the fridge, looking for her prized dessert.

A cool thing, a bit of plastic, touched Elma's neck and the dragon jumped, startled. "You ate it yesterday. I knew this would happen so I bought you another one." Lucoa, her hair tied into a ponytail and still wearing that same sweater as always, smiled her at flatmate.

Elma had made a habit out of blushing whenever she looked at Lucoa, not on purpose but because her feelings were completely out of control. The curse was long, long gone; it had only lasted for roughly a hundred hours to begin with. But in the meantime, she had told everyone at work, everyone she knew in the shopping district and just everyone she knew in general that she was now living with the most beautiful of all girls, and how much in love she was with her. Of course, all of that had been the curse talking through her.

"I-I'm in your debt." Taking the extra pudding, Elma ripped off the lid and grabbed a spoon from the cupboard. "What did you do today?"

"Tohru taught me how to clean the floor." Lucoa had been learning, little by little, about household chores and duties from the maid. She didn't feel so good about being a freeloader at Elma's place and since Shouta's parents hadn't changed their mind so far, she wanted to make herself useful.

"You cleaned he floor?" Elma, spoon in mouth, looked at the floor and it didn't look all that clean.

"I will tomorrow. It took me a few tries to get it right. Tohru had to dry the place with magic a few times." Lucoa had the same smile as always on her face. If she felt embarrassed, she didn't show it.

"You're a big help." Walking over into her small living room, Elma sat down on her bed and grabbed the TV remote, putting on something or other; what it was, was insignificant. She just liked the background noise nowadays.

"Tohru asked me what exactly our relationship is now." Lucoa dropped a bomb on Elma without warning, just as she sat down next to her.

Elma remained composed, if only because she had been asking herself that same question every morning and every night for the past three weeks. She was used to it now. "I wonder."

"You wonder? Aren't we still a couple?" Lucoa was amused by what she was doing. Elma was a beautiful woman and her personality being what it was, she was also fun to be around. So much in fact that she had stopped missing Shouta and his reactions.

Elma managed to actually choke on something was soft and delicious as pudding and turned scarlet red. "W-When did we become a couple?"

"When you let me stay here after the curse wore off and nothing changed from when the curse was affecting you?" Teasing Elma was surprisingly easy and even more fun than that. "Or are you saying you are just using me?"

"N-No! A harmony dragon wouldn't do something like that!"

"Then I won't have to call Tohru to tell her that I was mistaken about our status."

"You told her we're together?"

"She was quite polite about it."

"That evil dragon…!"

"You manage to go along fine whenever we are invited for dinner at their place or when she cooks too much and gives me some to take back."

"That's true… but… but…!"

Lucoa rubbed shoulders with her sort-of-girlfriend. "I am not being a bother, am I?"

"Weren't you… bothered when the curse made me cling to you?"

"You're a beautiful woman. And you are pretty fun to be around. I didn't mind then and I was happy when you didn't seem to mind either after the curse wore off." Lucoa turned lightly, smiling at the dragon lady. "Given how indecisive you are, I might have pushed things along a little."

"I'm not indecisive!"

"Is that why you spend sometimes minutes contemplating which flavor of toothpaste to use?" Lucoa mused with a very big smile. "There is nothing wrong with that. Everyone has their quirks."

Putting the empty pudding cup on the table, just in front of the bed, Elma quickly got of the bed, grabbing the empty cup she had just put down and walked to the kitchen part of her flat – first standing in front of the sink and reaching for the tap, then she just threw the cup away as is.

Lucoa didn't bother to follow Elma around like a dog and just stayed put. _Perhaps it is because she is so indecisive that she can't decide what to do about our situation. But it is entertaining to see her fret a little._ "I am fine living with you like this. I am not prejudiced in either way, and I have no complaints when it comes to your looks or personality."

Elma put her fingers together and was even more embarrassed than before. Usually, her growling stomach in the middle of a conversation was the sole reason for her to feel that way. "I've never actually dated anyone."

"Oh, but you have, for three weeks now." Lucoa grinned by herself and turned her attention towards the TV that was still running. "And just imagine how jealous Tohru will be when she realizes you beat her to the punch."

"What do you mean?"

"She serves as Kobayashi-san's maid, but everyone knows how she really feels about her. If she sees that you found a partner before she managed to get Kobayashi-san to return her feelings the way she wants her to, imagine how jealous Tohru will be."

Elma smirked for a moment and quickly wiped it off her face when she realized it. "That doesn't matter!"

 _So you say, but I saw it, that smirk. You see Tohru as more than just someone you need to bring back to the other world. She's your rival, in some ways._ "Oh my way back, I actually found a new restaurant that opened. It serves… what was it… Italian cuisine I think. You really loved that pasta I brought over a few days ago, so I thought you'd want to know."

"What's the name?" Elma was suddenly back in the living room. "Do they run any promotions?" And now she was right in front of Lucoa. "Did their noodles get recommended by the Gourmet Blog I visit?" Elma was now pushing down Lucoa, staring right in her face. And like that, Elma saw for the first time what it looked like when the goddess Quetzalcoatl were to blush lightly. Realizing the position she was in, Elma tried to back away immediately but found her hands, put on her bed, to be held down by the feathered serpent. "I-I mean…"

"I happen to have some money we could use to go there. But in exchange, there is a little something I want from you."

"W-What?" Elma swallowed her drool. _A new Italian restaurant… they're probably putting out the best stuff they have right now to get good reviews. If we go right now we might even get there at prime time… and since it is new, there probably won't be that many people, so the kitchen won't be under a lot of pressure and I can order seconds and second seconds!_

"In four weeks of living together, and despite the curse, we have never kissed."

"K-Kiss?" Elma was surprisingly pure and naive when it came to such matters.

"It has been quite a long time for me since I had the chance to be with someone like this." She still held Elma's arms in place. In terms of pure power, Lucoa exceeded both Elma and Tohru, although her being a feathered serpent but her at a disadvantage in all out combat.

"So if… we kiss, you'll take me to that Italian place and pay for dinner?"

Lucoa nodded and made a sound of approval. _I can already see the wheels of indecisiveness turning behind her cute face. I never expected that living with a harmony dragon could be so entertaining and still let me have a laid back life._ Lucoa was strongly opposed to stress and she did her best to make Elma's day better when she came home very late in the evening because the company needed her to stay overtime.

"F-Fine."

 _Gluttony beat her aversion to lust_. Lucoa smiled even wider than before and finally let Elma go. _But this position might perhaps be a bit much for her_. Waiting for Elma to back away, now that she was free, Lucoa was very surprised, almost shocked, when the dragon lady instead bent down further. Her voluptuous breasts pushed down by Elma's, Lucoa tasted for the first time what it was like to kiss a dragon.

Elma tasted like nothing that was particularly memorable but rather the pudding she just ate. Lucoa knew that people's lips really didn't have a taste of their own, but each had a unique feeling to it. Elma's were supple and still had the right amount of firmness. For Lucoa, her tongue was as important as her eyes or ears. And feeling Elma's lips with her tongue sent a shiver down her spine. And to her surprise, Elma met her advances on her own, their tongues entangled with each other, wiggling about for never-ending seconds until Elma drooled on Lucoa's face and immediately backed away, embarrassed by that. "T-That's enough, right?"

"Yes. That was plenty." Lucoa wiped the drool from her cheek and rose from the bed. "Your tail is poking out."

Elma panicked a little and tried to hide her blue tail with just her hands until she remembered she could use magic. Finding enough composure to keep the spell intact from now on, she stepped away and opened her wardrobe. "Do you think I should wear something else?"

"I am going like this." _I don't understand why she bothers to buy clothes when we could just make them from our scales. I thought the harmony faction was all about non-interference in this world._ "I think your office clothes are just fine."

"Then what are we waiting for?!" As if to emphasize Elma's desires, her stomach growled loudly. "T-That's a coincidence! It has nothing to do with-" Another growl and Elma just didn't bother to say anything else.

Despite being a dragon and a feathered serpent, the two took the normal route – public transportation. Lucoa couldn't drive and neither could Elma. Even if either of them could, Elma didn't make enough to afford a mostly pointless car. From the outside, she looked like a perfectly normal and mostly hard working office lady. Lucoa raised a few more eyebrows with her blonde hair and enormous breasts, the size emphasized even by the dark blue, almost black, sweater she wore at all times.

Sitting next to each other on the bus, which was a slightly unusual experience for Lucoa since she usually just walked everywhere, Elma tried to make the time until they got to their stop go by faster by starting a conversation. "I didn't know you had a job, Lucoa."

"Hm?"

"You said you had money." A realization hit Elma. "You didn't _make_ the money, right? That would be a crime."

"There are a lot of things I own in the other world I can safely sell over here. I sold just a little bit of gold for 150,000 yen. I've been a freeloader at Shouta's place for a long time but after seeing you work hard every day, I didn't want that to continue."

"You **could** have looked for a job."

"Hm, I feel like this is fine."

"You shouldn't bring in otherworldly stuff."

"Gold exists in abundance on this world as well."

"That might be true, but… well, I suppose I can look the other way since it is for a good cause."

 _Treating you to dinner is for a good cause then?_ Lucoa really enjoyed being around Elma. Tohru was a little too high-strung at times, when it came to Kobayashi-san at least. Elma was much more relaxing and amusing in how easily she was directed with promises or helpings of food. _And if I am being honest with myself… Elma is pretty attractive. It's been a few centuries since I last thought that of someone_. "What are you planning to order?"

"Everything."

"Everything? What do you mean? Everything you haven't tried before?"

"Exactly what it means."

"The entire menu?"

"If you have 150,000 yen-"

"I didn't bring all of that with me." Lucoa reached form her pockets and pulled out the bills she had on her. A quick count and she had a concise number. "45,000 yen. That's what I got on me."

"That's okay!" Elma clenched her fist. "I can definitely eat through the entire menu with that!"

"Where are you going to stuff all of that food?"

"My stomach is as big as my sense of justice."

 _I wonder what is bigger, your sense of justice or your gluttony. I'm rather inclined to believe it's the latter_.

The two dragons kept chatting nonchalantly for a little longer, and about nothing in particular, until they made it to their bus stop and got off the vehicle. Walking together, just side by side, the two of them headed through the evening streets, the red dusk bathing the streets of Japan in its still warm light.

Lucoa changed sides a few times, walking to the left or the right of Elma depending on where the next food shop or stand was. Distracting her with questions about Italian food, so the dark haired woman would look at her and just her. Lucoa at one point took Elma's hand with confidence, the two of them walking not just together, not merely side by side, but **together** , holding hands and shoulders close together. Lucoa avoided embarrassment because she cared relatively little about what the humans thought. And Elma was too preoccupied with fantasies about plates with mountains of pasta and pizza to think about what others thought.

The evening streets were fuller than anticipated, especially around the station, and at one point Lucoa and Elma had to really push together to make it through the crowds. The restaurant was barely noticed by the average passerby, despite a big sign saying _Grand Opening_ hanging on the door. The inside was pretty packed despite that, and Elma looked somewhat dejected to see this.

Sitting down, both women pulled up their own chair, Elma immediately leaped into the menu, her eyes greedily absorbing every letter, every price point. It was somewhat expensive – enough so that she was sure she couldn't just come back on her own. "You're really treating me, right?"

"Would I lie to a beautiful face like yours? Of course not." Lucoa was naturally adept at being charming when she really wanted to. She still didn't understand why Shouta had been so unreceptive to her encouragement.

"Then… I'll have everything from this page and this… and this and this, this, this, and that, and maybe this twice since it looks like a small portion..." Elma's eyes were shining with glee. "What are you gonna have?"

"Hm, I don't know. It's been a while since I had food from Italy. If you could only pick two things from the menu, what would you eat?" _I can't ask her for recommendations – she would just hand over the entire menu with that big smile of hers and I definitely cannot eat that much._

"Only two things?!" Elma peered at the menu with everything she had, quickly flipping pages back and forth, she couldn't make up your mind. "Maybe the… no, definitely… but..."

 _I never thought indecisiveness could look so adorable_ , Lucoa thought and prodded one of Elma's feet with her right foot. "Close your eyes."

Elma didn't argue with her savior, anyone that was treating her to an all she can eat was her savior after all, and just did as Lucoa asked.

"Now point at something on the menu." Lucoa waited for Elma to do so. "Open your eyes and tell me what I'll be eating."

"Pizza Hawaii."

"Pizza Hawaii it is then." Lucoa really didn't have any preference one way or another.

A waitress came over right after Lucoa waved at her. She resembled Elma the faintest bit because of her hairstyle but she was otherwise much more reminiscent of Kobayashi. "Drink bar for two."

"I'm sorry miss, but we only serve individual drinks on a per customer basis." The waitress was still very polite, which told the two women that she was either new, or **very** experienced.

"A large cola then." Elma ordered instantly.

"Same for me."

"Of course. Are you also ready to order your meal?"

"You should probably warn the kitchen that a challenger has appeared," Lucoa commented with a big smirk that got even bigger when the waitress didn't really understand. "You will be rather busy. She looks like this, all slim and beautiful, but she can really eat a lot if the food is good."

"Oh." The waitress looked at Elma, who was not embarrassed in the slightest. "I-I'll tell the chef that we might get really busy then." _But how much can a woman like her eat? She looks Japanese, like me… but this blonde, is she American? She… her chest certainly looks American!_

"I'll have a large pizza hawaii. What are you starting with, Elma?"

Three minutes later, the waitress, pale as a sheet, ran into the kitchen, giving out Elma's starting orders. The two women had forgone their complimentary offer of bread and just went straight to the meal – _or their eating marathon_ , the waitress thought.

"The waitress had a pretty amazing expression when you just kept telling her what you're going to have." Lucoa played a little with her glass, running her finger across the rim at the top. "You're like one of those martial artists that go around and challenge dojos for their signs. But with food instead."

"I just wanna eat something good."

"Looks like a lot of other couples had the same idea we did." Lucoa took a quick look around and was amused, which admittingly didn't take very much, when Elma turned on her chair, arm on the backrest, to look behind her. "Although it looks like we're the only girl couple here."

"We're also the only dragons here." Elma was too excited to feel embarrassment or anything like that and so she went along with Lucoa.

"They don't know that. So let's keep that a secret between us."

"But… telling everyone we're together and then actually _being_ together..." Elma's stomach growled in anticipation of food, and also from the smell that was permeating the air inside the restaurant.

"Would you be more comfortable if I was human?"

"Absolutely not." Elma shook her head lightly. "I still think Tohru is setting herself up for suffering when Kobayashi's lifespan runs out."

"Well, there are a few things she can do to extend it."

Elma looked both nervous and uncomfortable now. "Using magical items from the otherworld on humans in this world… that is definitively interference!"

"She's a Chaos Dragon. If she lives sixty or seventy years with Kobayashi in peace and then uses some water from the fountain of origins – actually I think they call it the fountain of youth in the legends of this world… I think you could overlook that, don't you think? Just think of it as giving her a treat for behaving all that time."

"You're not wrong, but…"

"And you haven't really thought about going back to the other world, have you?"

Elma swallowed and felt like she had just been caught doing something naughty. "O-Of course I think about going back, but I can't travel on my own and I have to bring back Tohru and-"

"I guess for as long as Tohru remains here, you will have to watch over her activities. And I will be here to keep you company."

"For as long as it takes?"

"If you don't kick me out, sure."

"I-I wouldn't do something like that." _I would if you take my pudding, though!_

"What about breaking up with me?"

Elma managed to actually be embarrassed now, despite her anticipation for food. "I've got no reason to. For now."

"We feathered serpents actually chose our partners very carefully." _Teasing her is quite fun._ "And in some cases, we chose our partners for all our life. We never stop loving them." _It's so cute how she blushes. I can't get enough of it._

"F-For life?"

"Sometimes."

"Are you-"

"Who knows." Lucoa grinned again. "I think your first order is coming."

=== Curses can be Blessings ===

"I still cannot believe that you really ate everything on the menu." Lucoa was really impressed with Elma. "And you look no different. I guess dragons really do have a stomach in a league of their own."

Walking through the streets at night, the cold, but not too cold, air pleasant on their faces, they held hands once again, walking a lot more slowly back the same way they had come. Lucoa had wanted to walk back all the way, but Elma insisted on taking the bus – flying in their true forms was not an option because for a harmony dragon, all interference was forbidden. And she didn't want to get home too late since she did have to go to work tomorrow. For a dragon, Elma had very human worries.

"There are a lot of things in the other world that can eat much more than me! You're making me sound like a glutton!" Elma felt **full**. So full like she hadn't felt in a long, long time. Eating for 368,000 Yen was something she had never done before and when Lucoa paid the bill, to the visible relief of the restaurant staff, she felt a bit guilty.

 _You are most definitely a glutton, Elma_. "I almost expected you to go to that ice cream stand that was across the street when we left."

"There was an ice cream stand?! What kind of flavors did they have, did you see?"

"I should have known." Lucoa chuckled. "I suppose eating **everything** is one way to avoid deciding what to choose."

"Well, I can't just grab gold from the other world and sell it to make money! So if I get the chance to eat everything, I will. I can't just spend everything on food normally." Elma pouted a little but still held on to Lucoa's hand. She was a little surprised how it didn't bother her at all to be seen acting like, no, **as** a couple with her.

"So you would rather I don't keep doing that? I won't be able to treat you anymore."

 _No more treats… but… interfering in the economy… but treats… interference… I shouldn't look the other way… but she's my partner and I owe her already and she is using it to treat me so I can focus on my job and she's not really… not **really** interfering, just kinda, a little… _

Lucoa watched the little gears behind Elma's face rotate and grind. _She's fretting about whether she should let me keep doing it so I can take her out for food or focus on her role as a member of the harmony faction._ "Gold is found and lost all the time in this world. It is no more intereference than you taking a job that could have gone to someone else."

"Ugh… I didn't think that I was interfering that way… "

"Interfering is just another way of saying interacting, you know?"

"Hm?"

"You are interacting with humans and people from the otherworld you would have never dealt with. As much as you and Tohru dislike each other, you manage to get along for Kobayashi-san's sake. Such a thing would be unthinkable back in the other world. You are trail blazing the path of a pioneer, Elma."

"Y-You think so?" Elma felt flattered and walked a little closer to Lucoa from there on.

"A lot of life is interpretation."

"I wonder what the others in my faction would think of me dating an outsider."

"Hmm… I'm not **that** powerful, so I don't think they'd care. They'd probably be jealous, though. Some of you, some of me."

"Jealous of what?"

"Of being your lover of course." Lucoa hit Elma with a seductive glance and smile, something she was very skilled in.

"Is that really something to be jealous of?"

"Oh, you weren't popular back home?"

"I didn't say that!"

"So why would they not be jealous then?"

Elma didn't answer and just looked away as they kept going and going, right past the bus stop, with Lucoa letting go of her hand only to hug her arm, like a more intimidate couple would. "Even if you're not popular in the other world… among everyone I met during my time in this world, you're the only one I ever considered seeing as my lover. That's why I wasn't bothered by the effect of the curse."

"You didn't know what breaking the curse would do, right?"

"Maybe."

"You knew, didn't y- ah, that's our bus!" Elma broke away from Lucoa in a hurry, chasing after the bus so she would make it in time for the next stop. But since there were people everywhere, and she was far more concerned about being perceived as non-human than Tohru was, she couldn't use her superhuman strength and speed.

Lucoa chased after Elma and she attracted quite a few stares for doing so. As a former goddess, she wasn't really used to the idea of wearing a bra or running somewhere like a human. And as such, her chase after Elma, who was much more used to running like a regular mortal, was filled with bouncing and jiggling. "E-Elma, w-wait!" _T-This is tough. Being limited to the capabilities of my disguise…_

Elma barely made it in time to the next stop, out of breath, her chest heaving with heavy breaths, one hand against the bus and the other against her right thigh. "One… one moment. My girlfriend… is coming too..." Elma incoperated a limiter into her shapeshifting spell, just so she didn't have to consciously limit herself all the time. _Maybe I should sign up for that gym program after all…_

Lucoa, with her head red and a terribly uncouth running form, barely arrived in time for the bus driver's second complaint and both of them got on the bus. Elma paid for Lucoa's fare with her cellphone, her latest acquisition, and the two of them dragged themselves all the way to the back.

"We could… have just… walked… or maybe… flown..." Lucoa was so out of breath that she had trouble speaking. "My chest… is a world of hurt..."

"You don't wear a bra… that's why." Elma had had time to recover a little bit. "I just didn't want to get home past midnight. I need to be up at six at the latest."

"I… I know..." Lucoa leaned back against the seat, her golden hair glistening with sweat that also ran down her forehead. _I haven't been this tired in… at least a thousand years_. "How could you… run like that with your stomach so full?"

Elma had never **really** paid much attention to Lucoa's physique but now that she was sitting there right next to her, sweating and out of breath, she couldn't help but feel tempted by her. _She's… pretty erotic. I didn't really realize until now because she always dressed so… sluttily before, but…_

"Something… caught your eye?" Lucoa still managed a smirk through her exhaustion and slowly calmed her breathing.

"I am taking your measurements when we get home and you need to either make yourself a bra or get one made." _There is no way a Japanese store will have anything big enough for her. And custom made… is expensive. It's one thing to sell gold so we can go and eat out, another if it's something she could just use her scales for._ _Or feathers… I actually don't know_ _which one is right_.

"I don't think that is really necessary."

Elma turned her head and looked at the people they had passed by when they walked to the back of the bus. "No, it definitely is. I don't want them staring at you the second we walk faster than a casual stroll."

"Monopolizing my allure… how feisty of you."

"T-That's not… I mean… not really what it is..." _Don't blush, don't blush, don't blush!_

"Your face tells a slightly different story."

 _Dammit_. "Whatever the case, if you want to stay with me, you have to obey the rules of my household."

"Can it still be called a household if you live in a small flat?"

"It can!"

"No choice then I suppose."

Elma felt relieved and breathed a sigh of relief. "I am glad that you changed your clothes to something more appropriate on Kobayashi-san's behest, but not wearing a bra is definitely not a good decision. It goes against the standards set by society!"

"You should have started with that. Then it wouldn't sound like a justification for-"

"It's not a justification!" Elma blushed more intensely this time around. "There's nothing t-that great about your breasts anyway."

"Other than their size, softness and flexibility?"

 _Softness…_ "They're just big."

"I cannot let that stand. I suppose I'll have to teach you about their qualities back home."

"W-What are you saying in public, you harlot?!" Elma raised her voice a little too much and some of the other passengers started to look over their shoulders and whisper.

The dragon and the serpent both spent the remainder of the bus trip in silence, Lucoa quite happy with herself and Elma as embarrassed as Lucoa was happy. They were the only ones to get off at their stop and Elma was already fumbling about with her keys when the bus drove off and Lucoa made good on her earlier promise a little early, squeezing Elma's right arm between her voluptuous chest. "Shall we go home?" Lucoa clung to her much more intensely than before, Elma's arm outright swallowed up by her breasts, contained by nothing but the black sweater she wore.

Elma felt like one of those characters in manga that she had recently started to read on the recommendation of that human that Fafnir lived with. "Let's go." She didn't have the mental capacity for a witty comment or even just lecturing Lucoa on what constituted acceptable behavior in public. It was late, past nine now, and there were few, if any, people about.

Elma lived in a large apartment complex, in a small flat. In reality, it was too small for her and Lucoa, but she didn't have the savings to find another place, and so far it happened to work out because Lucoa had spend her nights out or reading, while Elma slept.

Ascending the stairs slowly, because Lucoa would not allow for anything faster than that, they reached the fourth floor, where the two of them lived in apartment 408. As they shut the door behind them, Lucoa finally let Elma go free – for scarcely a second, that was. Flinging around, bolting at her like a snake about to reach their prey, Lucoa pushed the dragon turned office lady against the door using all of her body. Breasts pushing against breasts, her right thigh between Elma's legs, Lucoa slowly licked along the furthest right of Elma's neck.

A blazer was hurriedly unbuttoned and roughly pulled over the arms of the black haired woman, binding them behind her back for a moment. The black skirt forced down her legs, sliding all the way to the ground, over stockings and high heels. Elma was already half undressed by the time she realized what Lucoa was doing to her. Shoving her so hard that Lucoa staggered backwards, Elma didn't bother to fix her appearance. "Bath. You reek of sweat."

"E-Eh?" Lucoa had never been rejected like that, certainly not in the middle of seducing someone.

"I'm not allowing you into bed like this. And you'll have to hurry. I'm bathing first and you can go second." Kicking off her heels at the door, Elma walked right into the bathroom, leaving a befuddled Lucoa in the main room.

The bathroom door closed and locked, Elma slowly slid down, her back against the door, her face immediately turning to a fierce red. _W-What was she gonna do?_ Elma nearly transformed out of shock when someone knocked on the door, twice. "What?"

"Was I too forward? Are you angry?"

"No." _Just… you were kinda pushy and sudden and… my heart is beating like crazy._

"Can I… join you in bed later?"

The silence that emerged between them was almost as solid as the door that separated them. Finally, Elma made an agreeable noise. "You can."

Lucoa heard the water turn on right after but felt relieved nonetheless. _I was worried there for a moment that I pushed her too hard. But knowing her, if I did nothing, she would just be indecisive forever. Or maybe that is just about picking between foods._

Sitting at the table, the serpent reached for the laptop that Elma had bought about two weeks ago. A cheap thing that wasn't useful for much more than browsing the web. Lucoa had spent a long time around humans, but there were quite a few things she had never picked up on. After watching Elma a few times, she at least knew the bare minimum on how to use a computer.

Typing something into the search machine, Lucoa was quite impressed with the technology that humans had come up with. She still had trouble with the touchpad of the laptop however. Sitting there and looking things up, Lucoa passed the time until she heard the bathroom door unlock. Leaning back, this was one of the extremely rare times that she would see Elma in her human form naked – or almost naked. A large white towel covered her from the chest down, reaching slightly above her knees.

"Feel better?"

"Lots. Every day I think… how do we dragons live without the comfort of a bath like this?"

"You even change your scales when you bath."

"Of course! It would be unhygenic and unpleasant to bathe with clothes, even if they're technically my scales."

"I suppose that's true." Lucoa kept her eyees on the dragon girl that talked towards the fridge now, lightly staring at her butt beneath the white towel. Staring at her still damp hair, pulled back and fully revealing her forehead. From one moment to the next, the hazelnut colored and curved horn emerged from there. A single breath after, her tail poked out from below the towel and she turned her head.

"You're staring."

"Between Tohru and you… you have a much more beautiful tail."

"R-Really?" Elma looked at at the fridge and opened it, taking a small cup of yoghurt from it. Not pudding, but yoghurt. She was very peculiar about that – one cup of yoghurt after a bath while she was still just wearing the towel. The rare time of day where she didn't hide her dragon features.

"It's not as bulky. The tip also looks cute while Tohru's is just simplistic. Yours isn't visibly covered in lots of scales."

Elma still hid her face and ate her yoghurt while standing up. But it was obvious how she felt. Her tail was wiggling back and forth like that of a puppy that had been praised. Finishing the milky treat, Elma went to the trash bin to throw away the empty cup and as she walked, the towel came undone. Caught indecisive between grabbing the towel and throwing away the cup, Elma was about to be completely naked.

Lucoa appeared like a storm behind her, holding the towel together, above her breasts. "Careful." Fixing the towel for Elma, Lucoa took off her hat and smiled at the harmony dragon, not caring that she couldn't see it. "Don't fall asleep without me."

Elma was left behind when Lucoa vanished into the bath, drawing a fresh bath for herself. _How unlike me, to act like that._ The feathered serpent changed the way her scales manifested and from one moment to the next, she was just in her humanoid form, naked. Unlike Tohru and Elma, she didn't manifest a separate tail, even if she got sloppy. She hid her horns after some child had pointed to them and made a fuss in the presence of Elma, who from there on had asked her to hide them when she went under out and mingled with the humans.

 _It feels strange, bathing in this form. But the hot water on this skin… on my skin… it makes me think back of before that day. The warm rain of the rainforest, cleaning my body, rinsing away the leaves of the trees. I have been with the humans for so long, sometimes it slips my mind that I am even more different from them than Tohru and Elma. Perhaps that is why I am so drawn to Elma now. To be with humans is fleeting, albeit entertaining. But to find love, beings like me… we cannot be satisfied with a mere sixy or seventy years. Even if Tohru would use magic from the other world to make Kobayashi-san young again fifty years from now… even such magic has limits. I want someone that can be by my side for a long time. Perhaps until this civilization falls and a new one rises from the ashes. Maybe the harmony faction will reconsider their policy of non-interference once a civilization rises that is more… open-minded towards the grandiose._ Soaking in the bath by herself, not that there would have been space for the two of them together, Lucoa went all the way into the water for once, her wavy long hair sticking to her neck as she came back up. _Maybe I should put it up into a ponytail sometime._

Sitting down on her bed, Elma glanced at the open laptop. Before anything else, she took off the towel, stark naked for a single second before she used her magic and scales to re-create clothes. But instead of making her office lady clothes, she switched it up, making pajamas, pants and a shirt; both in white and with a motive of chocolate coronets.

 _I shouldn't look… but it is my laptop and I'm curious… what would someone as powerful as Lucoa even want from the internet?_ Curiosity won out and Elma peeked. The results were underwhelming. The tabs in the browser were all about underwear, primarily bras. Elma felt shameful about peeking. Closing the laptop, Elma sat back on the bed and smiled by herself for a little while. _Being Lucoa's… lover… I think I want to get used to that_.

She turned on the TV. Elma didn't really understand the appeal of most of the things that were on there, but she decided to wait for Lucoa instead of going to bed on her own. She happened to catch a re-run of an anime about animals that were turned into girls that she liked. Lying on the bed, elbow burrowed into her pillow and hand supporting her head, Elma killed time. Before she knew it, her eyes had come shut and she was lightly asleep.

Something tickled her nose and she tried to get rid of it by moving her hand over her face. Then it happened again. Something long, slightly wet. It was touching her cheek now. _What a pest…_ Elma was not quite awake just yet. The mattress gave way, something heavy was by her side. And finally, there was this weird noise that wouldn't leave her alone… _p… k up…. Ake up… wake… p…_

Waking up, blinking a lot, Elma squinted because the bright light of the room was too much for her. "A goddess…?"

"So close." Lucoa felt a little sad that she couldn't just say _yes_ to that, but it was still flattering that Elma would mistake her for a goddess even in her human form.

"Lucoa… oh, did I doze off?" Yawning loudly and only realizing after the fact how wide she opened her mouth for that, Elma blushed yet once more and averted just her eyes. "Did you finish your bath?" A nod with a smile was all the answer she got, no more, no less. When her gaze wandered, Elma found Lucoa to be wearing some truly scandalous clothing; merely panties and a large shirt, as if she was a young lass alone at home. Elma groaned a little, and rolled over, kicking the comforter with her feet and then reaching for it, pulling it up up her waist. "Can you turn off the lights before you lie down?"

Lucoa considered just using magic to flip the switch but then she decided to play along with Elma's rules, got off the bed and flicked the light off normally. The laptop was already closed and the TV was shut off. It was eleven thirty now and Elma had to be up in six hours. _I suppose I will have to postpone my seduction of this beautiful dragon lady until the weekend._

Lying down with Elma, who was already back asleep, Lucoa felt quite strange. _To… sleep. I haven't really slept like this in so long that I can't remember anymore what it was like or when it was. I think it was before that young man, that son of the carpenter, built the foundation to that really popular religion that's just everywhere today._

Elma didn't notice how one arm slowly arced above her hips, descended in front of her stomach and then rested there. Lucoa rested on her side, just scarcely enough space between herself and Elma for her to breathe without her chest touching against the dragon'd back. _I wonder how many centuries it has been that I have been with someone of my own world like this. A goddess, fallen from grace and a dragon from the faction of order and harmony… what an unlikely pair we are. It is strange that it is a human that served as a catalyst for the two of us to meet. And if I had not been tricked… I would have never met you. That fascinating old man was right when he said that opportunities multiply as they are sized._

Thinking about her past, Lucoa drifted further and further away from what she was doing, closing her eyes and letting the domain of Tezcatlipoca whisk her away to a place she had not been in a long time; the land of dreams.

=== Curses can be a Blessing ===

 _Lucoa… get your boobs out of my face…_ Elma was still too sleepy to be ready to wake up. _And take your hand off my butt…_ _and my hips… you harlot._ Her alarm hadn't gone off yet, which meant she still had precious sleeping time left. Spending months like this, living like a human, she had gotten very used to actually _needing_ that sleep. Trying to turn over, her bed wasn't really big enough for the two of them to be in there at the same time and still have space to toss.

Accepting her lot in life, Elma begun thinking about the truly important things. _Should I have rice or toast for breakfast… maybe rice… but I bought the toast a few days ago and it goes stales if I wait any longer… but fresh rice in the morning is kind of heavenly… Lucoa take your paws off my butt…_

Opening one eye, just the tiniest little bit, Elma saw nothing but white cloth in front of her and an immense softness that was all over her face. _Almost… no, is this even softer than those special extra soft daifuku they sold at that shop two streets from the convenience store for the cherry blossoms… ah… they were really delicious..._

Elma struggled and struggled, little by little and barely able to overcome her desire to just shift back to sleep; but finally, she had escaped Lucoa's original embrace. With one eye open she could see the sleeping face of the feathered serpent, a face that she had never seen before – that no one alive in either world had had seen and could still remember. Elma opened both of her eyes, just looking at Lucoa's face, dozens of fine golden strands falling over the serpent's cheeks and ears. It didn't make her any more beautiful than when she was awake, but the peaceful expression, defenseless and so different from the almost perpetual smiling she did… it was like a serene sight, from beyond the edge of the world, a peek into the depths of the abyss, past the darkness and the hidden light that few ever had the privilege to witness.

Despite the dim light shining inside through the curtains, Elma felt almost like she was seeing taboo and so she closed her eyes again, her heart beating faster now. _I became the lover of someone incredible, didn't I?_

Now that she had been almost awake once and her heart was acting up, so was her stomach. A loud growl, enough to draw a smile on Lucoa's face, embarrassed Elma. She had been wanting to stay in bed for just a little longer.

"Maybe I should learn how to make breakfast," Lucoa whispered to her girlfriend at the same time as she renewed her embrace of the dragon. "I thought I heard a thunderous noise..."

"I didn't hear anything," Elma lied through her teeth and faked innocence.

"I guess you're not hungry then. We can skip breakfast and-"

"I'm sorry. It was me. It was all me. My stomach growled. I'm hungry." Elma changed her tone immediately.

"Being honest with your desires is a virtue. That is one area where you could learn from Tohru."

"W-Who would want to learn from a chaos dragon!?" Elma got so childishly upset that she flailed her tail about, causing it to pop out from beneath the comforter.

"A wise woman that sees beyond the constrictions of her faction assigned at birth. Or someone who wants to have breakfast brought to bed."

Elma wagged her tail again. _Breakfast… in bed? That's… that's that thing that only exists on TV!_ Her tail hit the mattress several times until Lucoa put a stop to it by putting her index finger on Elma's lips.

"You dragons and your tails. Although it is really cute."

"C-Cute?"

"Pretty cute."

 _Nobody ever complimented my tail… it's strange, I never even thought I **wanted** them to…_ Elma started to feel a little sore and wanted to stretch. Using her elbow, then her arm, to push herself up, Elma just casually glanced at her alarm, knowing that she still had to have lots of time before she had to actually get up.

Lucoa was physically thrown off the bed when Elma, in a state of maximum panic, jumped out of bed and instantly switched her scales to her office uniform. Running to the fridge, opening it, closing it, she didn't take anything out, then jumped at the rice cooker, only to realize it would take far too long. Grabbing bread from the breadbox, she opened the fridge again, wiggling her fingers like crazy because she couldn't decide.

Another look at the clock, this time the one by the fridge. _I don't even have time to eat_! "Why was the alarm off?!" Elma nearly shouted at Lucoa, who had sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Alarm?"

"My clock! My alarm clock! It didn't go off!" Elma just grabbed some cheese sliced, sandwich bread, stuffed it together and then just squeezed it all into her mouth in one go. Washing it down with milk, also from the fridge, she wiped her lips with the back of her hand and ran to the entrance. "I'm gonna be late. I am already late! The chief is gonna have my head!"

"Should I ask an acquaintance to eat him?" Lucoa joked and Elma seemed to consider it for a split second.

"No, the one next in line is even worse!"

"Are you gonna take the train?"

"I have to but I'm not gonna make it in time!" Trying to put on her high heels in a hurry, Elma slipped and the shoe slipped out of her hands. "Ah, what do I do, what do I do? I'll never make it in time and I can't just **fly** there, my superiors would drag me home and then I'd miss the upcoming super-sale on that premium chocolate with nuts!" Finally getting her shoes on, Elma rose and was ready to step out the door, about to run and run as hard her limited form allowed her to.

"Elma."

Lucoa had changed back into her regular clothes, the white pants and the black sweater – with a little something extra under the sweater now. "Do you remember those muffins I brought home last week?"

"They were **so** delicious and fluffy… the way the dough just fell apart when you… what are you making me think about!"

"Just close your eyes and think about the muffins for a little longer."

"I don't have time for that!" Elma tried to open the door but Lucoa grabbed her hand.

"Just for a moment."

Elma let go of the door and closed her eyes, picturing those delicious muffins of which she could have eaten at least a hundred, maybe a thousand even! They came in different flavors too, some were a little more chewy. She could almost _smell_ them. _Ah… the fresh smell of muffins in the morning. I could really just eat a dozen right now! I can even hear the sound of the ovens in the back and… wait… hear?_ Elma opened her eyes and found herself standing **inside** that very shop she knew sold the muffins.

"This is close by to where you work, right?" Lucoa was still holding her hand.

"Lucoa!" Elma hissed as loudly as she could while it was still considered hissing. "You can't just… what did you even do? I didn't know you could teleport or what was this even?" Elma peered around and there was nobody up front in the shop yet. "You can't just make us appear around the humans! I'm still a harmony dragon!"

A quick kiss shot the dragon up well and sound. "You need to get to work, don't you? I'll wait for you at home. Or maybe I'll pick up some muffins after you leave and see how my favorite dragon lady is doing at lunch time."

Seconds later, the door bell rang, alerting the staff in the back to the presence of a customer. When they came up front, a foreigner, a woman with blonde hair and enormous breasts, was waiting for them with a smile. "How many of those delicious muffins can you make before lunch time? They're a gift.

=== Order seconds? ===

* * *

If you would like to see more, you can support me on pa treon/Kuugenthefox


	2. Chapter 2

The mixed bag of noise that only an amusement park could offer was blaring as loud as it could. Children, attractions, announcers and chatter of the people, all offering their own take on what was an acceptable level of noise to subject the other people to. Among all of that was an unlikely couple, who were not really a couple but two halves of a couple. And both of them were resting on a wooden bench, the sweltering heat and modest humidity making them just a little miserable, something that could be well ignored in favor of enjoying their excursion.

"Kobayashi-san!" Tohru returned to the bench with the biggest of smiles on her face. For just today, she had exchanged her maid outfit for something casual – a bright blue short skirt and a pink shirt with short sleeves. To avoid being bugged by human children, she also hid her horns and tail – Kobayashi had been worried she would be mistaken for a park worker by visitors.

The dragon handed a cone of ice cream to her crush and sat down next to her, in the empty spot between her and Lucoa, who they had met up with by coincidence. "They had a lot of flavor and I didn't know what to get so I went with something that sounded good."

"Walnut chocolate is good." The cold delight really helped combat the heat.

Kanna had tailed a little behind Tohru, decimating a triple scoop of ice, all cherry flavor, all on her own. Sitting on the other side of Kobayashi, she looked quite happy with herself.

The last to arrive was Elma, who was holding not one, or two, but four cones of ice cream, all with different flavors and at least double scoop in each. Handing two of them to Lucoa without question, Elma sat down on the far end of the bench, rubbing shoulders with the feathered serpent.

Sitting there and eating ice cream in peace, Kobayashi held hands with Tohru, their fingers touching down on the warm wood. It had been a few weeks since Lucoa had advised the office lady that she would only really understand how to be with Tohru by being with her. _Sometimes you do have to run before you can walk_.

The serpent handed one of the cones back to Elma, fully knowing that she had bought three for herself. "Would you mind if we continued to tag along?" Lucoa liked being on a date with Elma. They always took the opportunity of Sundays, Elma's day off, to go out together – although it often resulted in Lucoa accompanying Elma on an eating spree.

Kobayashi looked at Tohru, who pouted just a minuscule amount. She still disliked Elma, but ever since she had stopped nagging at her about _interference_ and _going home_ , she was gradually becoming indifferent to her being around. "Fine..."

"So she says." Kobayashi was glad that things were working out between her co-worker and her maid. _It already wasn't much of a date since we had Kanna with us. Having Lucoa and Elma with us will just make things a little more lively._ _Although Tohru is already plenty lively._

"Have you three been to the log water slide already?" Lucoa had no issues with the heat. For a very long time, she had lived near the equator, one of the regions of the earth where it was hot all year round. But she could see that especially Elma and Kobayashi were not too comfortable with the sweltering temperatures.

"A log slide?! That sounds amazing!" Kanna was already hyped for it.

"Have you two been to it already?" Kobayashi was curious.

"We walked past it." Lucoa answered for Elma, who was going through her last cone of ice cream.

"With this heat, anything that involves _water_ in the name sounds appealing to me." Kobayashi was briefly ignoring Kanna, who tugged on her arm. "We're going, Kanna, don't worry."

The group of five departed shortly after. Kanna was blazing ahead and both Elma and Tohru went to reign her in, ending up in a contest of who could walk faster without being suspicious to the people around them. Lucoa and Kobayashi were left behind by a few meters.

"How is your new job working out?" The office lady hadn't talked to Lucoa alone for a while. Not since she suggested she take a job to catch up with what humans were living like nowadays.

"Business is better than I expected. There are a lot more otherworldly things in this city and the surrounding lands than I thought." Lucoa was amused with the really uncomfortable face that Kobayashi made. "They are a very peaceful bunch. There is one Oni that buys a muscle relaxant so she doesn't end up competing unfairly with the other wrestlers. The scary legends and stories humans tell about _monsters_ are really just stories."

"Where did you set up shop?" Kobayashi was curious and wanted to visit.

Lucoa pulled an almost brand new cellphone. "Give me your number and I'll text you the address." She had messaging and calling all figured out. But anything more complicated than that was still learning in progress.

Pulling out her own phone and handing it to Lucoa after pulling up the address list, Kobayashi waited a few seconds for Lucoa to copy her number. "You won't mind if I visit, right?"

"All of the customers that come to the shop do so in human disguise. But I do home visits for some of them. There is a family of pixies that just had a daughter born for example."

"Please tell me that at least the undead are just fiction." Kobayashi hoped that all the really dangerous and horrifying creatures from the media were really just that.

"Undead do exist, but only as thralls of necromancers and such." Lucoa was glad that the human showed some interest in other species. "Don't worry, Elma, Tohru and I would never allow a necromancer to set up anywhere close to here."

"That's reassuring."

"Speaking of her, how are things with Tohru? I see you took my advice to heart."

"It's still a bit strange to be… a couple. I didn't even think about things like this until Tohru proclaimed she's in love with me. What about you and Elma? I was surprised to hear that you took things one step further **after** the curse wore off."

"Tohru is able to accept the prospect that even with magical potions and spells, she will only have around two centuries to spend with you. For me… I'm not strong enough to commit to a love like that. But Elma is a dragon in the harmony faction and she is staying in this world, so there is nothing that could tear her away from me. For someone like me, knowing that the partner I chose will be around for a very long time is really important. That I can trust her unconditionally is important too. And conveniently, Elma's kind is very honest."

"That's a much deeper answer than I expected."

"Working at my shop taught me that communication is important." Lucoa was proud of how far she had come in such a short time.

"Lucoa! Hurry up!" Elma was shouting from up ahead, holding a stick with cotton candy on it. Rushing ahead, she had gotten herself some. And since she liked Kanna, she also got her some. None for Tohru however.

"Sometimes Elma can be as childish as Kanna." Lucoa's smile was just a little different from all those times before. Instead of being merely an extension of her general personality, easy going and helpful, it was more about herself, how she felt.

"Is she still driven by her stomach?"

"Most of the time. But she does have a considerate side to her when it comes to me. Since my shop is close to where you two work, she always comes over for lunch. It is quite impressive how many shops will give you dishes for take out when they normally don't if you're a regular customer."

"There probably isn't a single food related shop near our workplace where she isn't a regular."

"I don't really have much use for the money I make so I let her use a lot of it to buy food."

"That's nice of you."

"Sometimes it feels like I am bribing her." Lucoa and Kobayashi finally caught up to the other three, who were really interested in the log slide. It was basically just a roller coaster that repeatedly crashed into the water and where the wagon came in the shape of a big log. The humidity in the air spiked the closer they got and it felt surprisingly good in the heat.

"The line looks kind of long." Kobayashi was not a fan of standing in line on her days off. It already happened plenty of times on commuting from work.

"Will you two be able to behave yourselves?" Lucoa touched both Tohru and Elma on the shoulder. "If we get in line you can't start fighting."

Elma looked away first. "I'll behave." _If she does_.

Tohru couldn't let Elma be the only mature one. "We're not children. As a maid, I can't cause trouble for Kobayashi-san."

"I'm proud of you Tohru." Kobayashi hesitated with taking Tohru's hand but pulled through after a minute glance at Lucoa. _Run before you walk. You'll never change if you never take risks_.

While Tohru was floating on cloud seven, hugging Kobayashi's arm like it was her private property, Kanna tugged on the human's free hand. "Kobayashi. What's that?." Kanna pointed to a sign that was showing a human and text saying _You need to be this tall to ride_.

Leading the little dragon to the sign, Kobayashi felt tiny clouds of worry forming over Kanna's head. She was at least twenty centimeters short of being tall enough. _If I say I will wait with her here, Tohru won't go. And the three of us waiting for Lucoa and Elma will be quite awkward. If I have Tohru put that invisibility spell on Kanna, it will still be problematic because she does need a seat and there will be attendants down the line… what to do…_

"Is there a problem?" Lucoa stood next to Kobayashi now, also holding hands with Elma, the two of them much more restrained than Tohru. A quick glance at Kanna, who was looking straight up and trying to measure the distance between herself and the sign, told Lucoa what the problem was. A certain kind of smile, one rich in slyness, was shown to Kobayashi before Lucoa let go of Elma and squatted down next to Kanna. "Do you want to ride with us?"

"Yes!" Kanna was still excited over going on the big log thing and smashing into the water.

"Kobayashi, Tohru, there is something I can do so she can come with us, but it'll be a little weird for the two of you."

"Weird? How?" Kobayashi was not sure she liked where this was heading.

"Are you going to use a chronicle transference spell on her?" Tohru noticed that both Elma and Kobayashi looked at her strange. "I know a bit about higher magic, don't look at me like that."

"What's a chronicle trans… ference? spell?"

"It lets you cut away part of your age, your time, and store it in something or someone else. Some really old human magicians in our world do that with granite statues and such to live for centuries."

"So is it dangerous?" Kobayashi looked down at Kanna but her question was obviously directed at Lucoa and Tohru.

"I'm afraid I don't know that much. I didn't know it could even be done with a dragon. Or that Lucoa could cast such a high level spell."

"Lucoa has enough magical power for all of us combined." Elma felt defensive for some reason.

"Now now, this isn't a competition." Lucoa didn't want those two to start a magic power measuring contest. "Transferring time to a living thing is like pouring water from a full bucket into an empty bucket. It will just make her older." Lucoa noticed the still worried look on Kobayashi's face. "Since Kanna is a dragon, it won't hold for very long. Four, maybe five hours at most. Dragons are a very resilient folk when it comes to this type of magic."

"Kobayashi, Tohru, what are you two talking about?" Kanna didn't really follow the conversation. Highly complicated magic like that was a little over her head for now.

Lucoa looked straight at Kanna with her biggest smile. "I can use a trick to make you as big as Tohru for a few hours. You can go on all the attractions with us then."

Kanna's face lit up. She didn't really care about being taller or older but she didn't want to miss out on any of the attractions. And she also didn't want to be a bother to Kobayashi. "Can I?" Kanna pulled on the free hand of the human. "Kobayashi, can I?"

"There is no risk?" Kobayashi was worried for Kanna's well being. In practice, they were like family.

"She might be a bit tired after the spell wears off." Lucoa stood back up. "There is not really anything weird involved in the spell, if you're worried about that."

"Are we going to stand around here much longer? It looks like the line is getting longer." Elma was a little impatient. She really hated the heat. As a dragon, she was most comfortable in the water, being a sea serpent in the first place.

"No magic out in the open." Kobayashi didn't want a scene to happen. Nowadays, people with their cellphones where everywhere and she didn't want to show up trending on twitter in a headline reading _supernatural event at zoo_.

"We just passed a restroom. Kanna, can you come with me for a moment?"

With Lucoa away, Elma plundered the nearby food stall that was selling burgers. She didn't feel any shame in eating alone while Kobayashi and Tohru where leaned against the tall wooden fence that separated the pathway from the area of the water attraction. It took six minutes, and about three burgers, before Lucoa returned, a changed Kanna in tow. She didn't look very different – just older. She was about as tall as Elma, maybe a little taller. Her hair was still the same length, seen in proportion to her height. In terms of proportions in general, she also resembled Elma closely, although her hips were a little wider than those of the water dragon.

"Kobayashi, Kobyashi!" On the inside, Kanna was still the same however. Jumping up and down by the human's side, Kanna was really excited. "Look, I'm taller than you are!"

"You're like a real adult now, Kanna." Kobayashi did her absolute best to ignore the other effect the jumping had because she didn't want to be annoyed with Kanna. "Should we go then?"

"A beautiful lady on each hand." Lucoa smirked and Kobayashi felt a bit weird about that idea. She would never see Kanna that way. It was difficult enough to think of Tohru like that after living most of her life until then without thinking about that kind of thing at all.

"How much time did you have to pass on to her?" Elma was back to holding hands with Lucoa. After the unusual start to their relationship, she was pretty used to being affectionate towards the former goddess now.

"That's a secret." _More than I expected._ For someone like Lucoa, there was no visible change if she had a few centuries more or less to her name.

Following the odd trio into the line, Elma started playing with Kanna, who was excited about being able to see everywhere now. Playing _I see something you don't see_ with the young dragon, Elma was joined by Tohru, the two of them entertaining Kanna together.

"Thanks." Kobayashi stood a little behind Elma and Tohru, facing Lucoa.

"Nothing to thank me for after we intruded on your family date like that."

"A family date? That's not a bad name for it."

"I hoped you wouldn't be weirded out by seeing Kanna all grown up."

"After everything I saw… that barely qualifies as unusual. I guess it's true that you can really get used to anything."

"That hasn't changed in thousands of years. Humans have an amazing ability to adapt to their circumstances and everything around them."

"Considering the things you girls can do, being called amazing feels like it's sarcasm."

"No, no, I meant that genuinely!"

"Oh, I didn't know to insinuate you did not. I just meant, it feels like that. Inventing and adapting are the two things people excel at, I guess."

"Why did you decide to come here today?" Lucoa was a little curious about that.

"The ticket discount." Kobayashi was very open about such things. She wasn't really hurting for money but they weren't rich either.

"Elma wanted to come because apparently the restaurant that's in here has some really special omelet rice on offer for just this month."

"Don't tell them that!" Elma turned away from their game, blushing. She still vehemently refused the notion that she was a glutton. A gourmet, yes, but definitely not a glutton!

"You're really cute when you're embarrassed." Lucoa was not one to unjustly tease people, especially not Elma, but when it happened without intention, she definitely didn't lament the result.

Elma continued to blush but had no more objections. After missing out on a free meal out of stubbornness and denial, it was a lesson hard learned to stop being obstinate.

"Glutton." Tohru poked fun at the water dragon.

"Slave." Elma was definitely not above returning the favor.

"What?! I'll have you know that my employment is completely voluntarily!"

"Stop," Kobayashi grumbled.

Elma was caught off guard when Lucoa poked her cheek **really** hard. "What was said about fighting?"

Both of the dragons pointed at each other and said the same thing. "She started it!"

"I don't care." Kobayashi pulled on Tohru's hand and dragged her to the side while Lucoa did the same, keeping Tohru and Elma separated like two squabbling children. Kanna, in the meantime, was just enjoying the view from her new height.

Things calmed down quickly and the couples stuck to themselves for a little while. "Kobayashi. Do you think Saikawa would recognize me?" Kanna was a little bored with her new perspective already.

"You're still very much Kanna." Kobayashi smiled warmly. _I still remember when she accused me of seducing Tohru and she wanted to go back home. I guess home is a different place now._ "Tohru."

"What is it, Kobayashi-san?" Tohru had found something interesting. _When the humans come down in that big log they scream like they're being eaten. It's not bad_.

"How long is it going to take for Kanna to grow up like that?" _It will be a bit problematic when everyone around her grows up and she doesn't. It's one thing for us adults to stay the same, but for kids… even if the teachers ignore it, and they probably won't, the other kids in class will notice_.

"Hm… I don't really know. Dragons take a pretty long time to grow up, so maybe three or four centuries?" _Ah… that means Kobayashi-san won't be able to see her grow up. That's a little sad when I think about it. She really cares about Kanna after all_.

"That could be a problem. I mean there are some people that don't grow very tall, but if she stays like she is now for years and decades even… it will make it difficult to be around other people."

Tohru figured out what Kobayashi was on about. "That's right. I see what you mean. I can do perception blocking, but I can't alter her appearance with that. And it is probably a little too hard for Kanna to learn an advanced transformation spell. Turning into a human is easy enough, but changing your appearance there… that's rather difficult."

"You cannot do that with your scales?"

"They're like clothes, or armor. That's like me asking if you can make yourself older or younger with your hair or clothes."

"It might be fine for another year, maybe even two, but after that it will be really suspicious if she doesn't grow bigger a little. There is lots of magic stuff in your world, right? Nothing that could help?" _I can't believe I never even thought of this before. Hiding her horns and tails is one thing, and living in human form another, but how didn't I realize this issue before? Was it because it wasn't an immediate concern?_

"Hmm… this is a bit a topic to think about right now." Tohru couldn't think of anything off the top of her head. _Most magic artifacts won't work on a dragon._

"You're right. Sorry."

"No, no, it's okay! I'm glad you care about Kanna. But please care about me too!"

"We two can just move somewhere else when your lack of aging becomes a problem." Kobayashi was back to smiling. "Maybe we can live in Okinawa. The weather is nice there."

"Can't you do something?" Elma was not quite whispering to Lucoa but keeping her voice down. She had overheard the entire thing.

"That is not something I can figure out on the fly. A chronicle transference spell is not a long time solution." Lucoa didn't want to get their hopes up for no reason. "And I didn't know you cared. It's cute."

"Cute? Really?" Elma was not that used to compliments yet, even the really small ones. Back home it was all duty, discipline and work so this was quite a change for her. "I don't like Tohru but Kanna is really nice and still innocent. And Kobayashi is a good person."

"I'll start looking for something at work tomorrow." Lucoa played with Elma's fingers. It didn't bother her at all that other people might see and disapprove of her doing it. They were just human after all.

Finally reaching the front of the line after nearly twenty minutes of standing around, the five of them didn't manage to get into the same round. Originally, the attendant tried to split them up but Lucoa and Elma just stepped aside and let two people from behind them in the line take their spot.

There fit four people per row. Kanna insisted that Tohru and Kobayashi sit in front with her while Lucoa and Elma were all the way at the back. Even if they were separated like that, they were still riding together – nobody would have to wait once they were done.

"It's rattle, it's rattling." Kanna, able to actually see out of the cart, was not as excited as she had expected. "It's slow."

Kobayashi on the other hand felt a pit steadily grow in her stomach. Squeezing Tohru's hand, she remembered that she wasn't a fan of these types of attractions; the kind that dealt with rapidly descending in some way.

Tohru on the other hand was in heaven. The human joy rides didn't really impress her all that much, but they gave her plenty of opportunity to get closer to her beloved.

"This is a lot less exciting than I imagined it would **be-!** " Elma's voice trailed off in a shrill scream when the log had reached the height of the tracks and rapidly descended towards the water with terrifying acceleration. Despite being a dragon, Elma was by far the loudest in their cart, screaming Lucoa's ears off. And then the impact came. Water splashed to every side. Tohru, Kobayashi and Kanna all got more than just a little wet from the airborne wave while Elma and Lucoa got off with barely a drop on them.

"This… this insolent, infernal contraption! I will destroy-" Tohru was about to burst a vein when Kobayashi tapped her shoulder, her red hair sticking to her head and giving her a very amusing look.

"Tohru. That's just the kind of attraction this is. It's so hot we'll be dry in twenty minutes. At least there… won't be..." Kobayashi froze when the cart stopped in the middle of the water and started to turn on a mechanical platform. And moments later, it was climbing again – backwards.

"I don't like where this is heading." Elma tried to look over her shoulder to the best of her ability, but she wasn't that flexible in her human form.

Lucoa could turn even less than Elma because for her, the security bars were a pretty tight fit. "It looks like there is no escaping getting wet in this ride." Lucoa was fairly amused with how tense Elma was.

Kanna tried to squeeze herself through the metal bars to look back over the cart but she wasn't small and slim enough for that right now. "I can't see! Kobayashi, I can't see."

"I think that's the point." Kobayashi undid her ponytail and twisted her hair once to get most of the water out. And then the pit in her stomach came again. Seeing where they were going was already scary, but **not** seeing? That just made things worse.

The log rattled and shook and finally slowed down. The slower it got, the more tense the people riding it got. And when it stood still entirely, and they could see down the tracks just how far up they had come, they all didn't feel the heat anymore.

With a howling noise, the cart flung itself forwards, descending down the tracks, almost as if it was in free fall. And Elma screamed again, holding on to Lucoa's left arm like it was her only lifeline.

Even Tohru felt a pit in her stomach from the sudden descent and then they hit the water – it felt like they drove into a wall. With a single enormous jerk, the cart came to a halt. In the back of the cart was a water serpent well in her element, figuratively. Water was all around her feet and for once she was glad she had listened to Lucoa's request and worn a new pair of high heels. At least her feet were mostly staying dry.

The cart ascended one last time and this time it was running on a pair of tracks parallel to another. And there was another car, with people inside who were wearing water capes to protect themselves. The office lady thought just one thing. _I ought to read warning labels the next time._

Three more splashes later, five very wet dragons and one just as wet human emerged from the attraction, a little cold despite the heat. "These clothes are definitely going into the laundry." Pulling on her shirt, it stuck to her like it was glued on. "Why didn't we get raincoats?"

"Seriously." Tohru shook herself like a dog, water spraying everywhere and her hair slapping the dragon in the face. "Ugh."

While the dragon's clothes were their scales, they couldn't just magically dry themselves without reverting to their true form. There came certain restrictions with being in human form. And Tohru in particular didn't mind the coy expression on Kobayashi's face because the dragon's shirt was really sticking to her large chest.

While Tohru drew Kobayashi's gaze, Lucoa, in her soaking wet sweater, drew the gaze of literally everyone else that passed by. Kanna and Elma were off a little better, their clothes just making them look very uncomfortable.

Kobayashi, after managing to separate her line of sight from Tohru's chest, took a quick look around. "If we go down that road we'll eventually get to the house of horrors. And it is sun all the way, so we'll dry quickly."

Lucoa was wringing out her hair like a dripping wet rag and when she couldn't do it properly on her own, Elma helped. Kanna and Tohru had the same problems and even Kobayashi kept her hair out of a ponytail, much to Tohru's delight.

"I apologize." Lucoa felt guilty for getting everyone a lot more than they had probably signed on for. "I didn't think we would be bombarded like this."

"Unexpected happenings can be part of the experience. I don't think anyone is really mad at you." Kobayashi didn't need to directly single out Tohru. Both her and Kanna shook their heads to confirm the woman's claim. "See?"

"If that is so, I'm glad." Lucoa winced a little when Elma wrung out her hair a little too hard. "Ow. Careful..."

"Sorry. It's just you have such long hair." It was one of the things Elma really liked about her. Not so much that it was blonde, as that stuck out a lot when they went out, but because it felt really good and she liked to feel it with her fingers.

Kanna popped out her horns for a moment and shook herself really hard to get most of the water off of her. With her hair down she looked almost like a rich lady. Even though she was anything but on the inside.

Walking down the sunlit path, with one stream of visitors and against another. Tohru didn't budge from her position as Kobayashi's attache and Kanna was walking a little in front of those two. Lucoa and Elma were off on their own to the side, a few meters away, walking arm in arm. While it wasn't appreciated, most Japanese no longer scoffed at two women being a couple in public.

The next time Kobayashi turned around, she couldn't spot the two serpents. And her phone vibrated. Pulling it from her pocket took a bit of effort, but she was glad it still worked after getting wet. _People always complain about their new phones breaking from every little thing. I'm glad I got an older model._ The text was short and to the point. _Elma and I are getting something to eat. We'll meet you at the exit of the horror house._

"I told her." Lucoa put her phone away, not between her breasts as she had done for a while but into the right pocket of her pants. They were still somewhere in-between damp and wet, but Elma was still happy. They were actually serving a special burger that one could only get at this amusement park and Elma really was a sucker for that sort of thing. With Lucoa's additional income, and their still modest rent cost, she didn't have to be as indecisive about food anymore. Lucoa sat next to Elma instead of across her. That way she could sneak a little bit here and there from the things Elma bought.

"This burger is amazing! Even hunting in the sea of heaven and capturing a crystal fish was not this delicious."

"I often forget that you are a water dragon." Lucoa ate a few of Elma's fries, one at a time, nibbling on the last one she took. "You don't miss swimming in the ocean sometimes?"

"Hm?" Elma had just stuffed her mouth with the rest of the second burger. Chewing and producing incomprehensible gibberish at the same time, Elma swallowed and repeated herself. "Do you miss flying around the rain forests?"

"Not particularly."

"See." Elma put on her happiest smile, leaned to the side and kissed Lucoa on the cheek.

 _She's like a young maiden when it comes to love. I never thought I'd be the first to have a serious relationship with her_. "It is really hot so we could go to the beach next week. I might be a _feathered_ serpent, but I am quite a good swimmer."

"The last time you went it was with Kobayashi. When did you get her number anyway? I don't have it and I work with her." Elma had a cellphone of her own but she rarely used it. She had left it at home today, since Lucoa brought hers.

"Earlier, when you went to get ice cream." Lucoa got a little closer, her hips touching Elma's. _I never get tired of seeing her eat_. Reaching for Elma's cheek, Lucoa removed a little bit of the hamburger's sauce. "Do you want to go to the beach next week? Luckily, swimsuits are not a problem for us."

"Don't even think about wearing those obscene strings from last time. I heard from Kobayashi. You harlot." Elma preferred modesty. The sweater that Lucoa wore nowadays was tasteful and still very appealing, a sweet middle ground.

"It hurts when you say that."

"I don't want you to show off like that." Elma was not the jealous type but she didn't want Lucoa to be leered at by other people. Lucoa came from a time when modesty was a scarce commodity and Elma understood this well, but she still didn't want her to carry on like that. And she found that a modest Lucoa was much more sexy than one that showed off skin or wore skimpy clothes. Seeing her up close always made her heart beat harder than normal. Harder than when she fought the chaos faction, harder still than when she had to report in to the harmonic leaders of her faction – and harder still than that one time she was caught sneaking a snack from the table of the superiors when she had been a much younger dragon.

With Elma starting at her like a romantic, Lucoa could not help herself. She was too old to engage in flirtatious and frantic antics of a youngster in love, but she definitely was not too old to be in smitten with someone. Sitting there, right by Elma's side, Lucoa leaned forward just enough to leave a tiny bit of space between her lips and Elma's. She wouldn't just go and kiss Elma. She wanted the water dragon to long for the sensation of a kiss. Dragons, in dragon form, had highly different ways of showing affection but Lucoa was quite fond of the way humans showed theirs.

And the water serpent responded, kissing Lucoa in broad daylight. Not a quick, fleeting kiss between two innocent teens but a deep kiss between two old beings that were very much in love. Albeit Elma loved modesty, she loved Lucoa more. Because they were in public their kiss remained pure – it didn't make the jump into a true adult's kiss.

Separating, Elma was blushing strongly and quickly focused on her next burger, biting a large chunk out of it. She was glad that she was used to hiding her tail and horn while being flustered. But if she was allowed to show them, her tail would be waggling back and forth. She had never been aware that she did that when she was excited and happy, not until Lucoa had mentioned it in passing. She wanted to fix that habit, that tell, but Lucoa was strangely attracted to her doing it, so in turn she let herself into following her instincts – and the tail wagging got even more pronounced.

Lucoa on the other hand didn't blush at all but wore a special kind of smile on her face, one that was reserved just for when she was alone with Elma. "I need to thank Kobayashi some day for bringing us together."

"It was my curse that got us together." Elma still didn't feel regretful over eating the offerings for an actual goddess.

"She is the common ground on which we met is what I meant. And you should not boast about getting yourself cursed. What would you have done if it was a more dangerous curse?"

"You'd still have saved me." It wasn't a question. Elma was absolutely sure that Lucoa would have saved her. "You're more powerful than you tell the others. I can tell. Strong enough that you could go toe to toe with the top level executives in the harmony faction."

Lucoa was not comfortable with that topic. "A bit of sparring and fighting is fine. But I don't like violence. It was one thing to frighten the humans a few thousand years ago – creating lightning storms and such. But please don't talk about serious fighting against dragons; elder dragons at that."

"I didn't mean it like that." Elma sulked a little. She didn't want to upset Lucoa and it even made the food taste less good because she felt bad. "I meant to say that you're strong, so you would use your power to save me."

The blonde put her hand on Elma's thigh. For today, Elma wore something simple. She usually kept to her office uniform but she didn't want to wear that on their day out. A black shirt with short sleeves and a blue jeans for the summer formed a very plain but also form fitting combination. Lucoa definitely approved. "I still cannot decide if I should call you cute or sexy in those clothes."

"A cute sexy?" Elma was back to enjoying her food after seeing that Lucoa was not as upset as she thought.

"I do really like the clothes you wear when you lounge around at home. Those are really sexy."

"R-really? I specifically picked them because they covered my chest well and gave me enough leg freedom to capture Tohru." Elma was suddenly very aware of how much skin her dragon clothes were showing. "I… need to make some adjustments to them."

"Don't. I think it is fine for you to show off your legs." Sliding her hand over Elma's legs, Lucoa smiled at her slyly. "And your shoulders, as well."

"D-Definitely making adjustments!" Greedily eating her burger, Elma was glad that Lucoa liked her clothes. Romance was still new for her and while she was getting the hang of kissing and basic intimacy, she always felt like she was holding Lucoa back a lot.

"Are you going to buy seconds for on the way? I do feel like I could go for half a milkshake." The sly smile continued. She didn't so much make fun of her girlfriend as she playfully pushed her buttons.

"Half of a big one?" In terms of human standards, Elma's stomach was bottomless.

"You're lucky that you never upset your stomach."

"I did accidentally nearly eat an anchor once… a lot of fish were swarming it and I just got excited and…"

"That must have been a surprise. Did your teeth hurt?"

"My teeth are peerless!"

"I love listening to your stories."

"Liar. When you got so many more stories than me. I'm just someone from the harmony faction, you helped humans build a civilization for themselves."

Lucoa carefully avoided the story of how she lost her place as a goddess, always. But she freely talked about her other experiences. "I can tell you about that time I took a nap after starting a storm to counter a drought another god had caused and not waking up in time to stop the storm. While we walk. I did tell Kobayashi we'd meet her there."

Kobayashi was exhausted. It was so obviously fake how Tohru kept being _scared_ by the actors and props in the ghost house. It was the old fashioned, explore by yourself kind, not the boring on rails one. And Tohru took every chance to hug, jump, cling and squeeze Kobayashi – so much that Kanna got bored by herself and wandered off, ahead of the two.

After finally reaching sunlight again, Kobayashi felt like it was the literal light at the end of the tunnel. The horrors hadn't impressed her at all – all those dragons and what not she knew were a million times scarier after all – but Tohru constantly clinging to her had sent her heart racing again and again. The moment she thought herself safe, Tohru squeezed her arm right between her breasts, squealing about some kind of bandaged man-monster. Another time, she rubbed their cheeks together. _I need a vacation from this vacation day_.

Tohru happily held Kobayashi's hand and even seeing Elma and Lucoa wait for them up ahead couldn't dampen her spirits. But what did was Kobayashi's exhausted face. Letting go of her crush's hand, the dragon maid tried to walk up ahead and give her date some space. _She looks kinda exhausted. Did I overdo it? I'll give her some- huh?_

Kobayashi, almost as if she could read her maid's mind, didn't leave her out of her reach, grabbing her hand and keeping her close. "You're thinking something wrong, I can tell."

"You're not bothered by me?"

"Bothered, no. But I do need you to… take it easy on me for a bit." She really pushed herself hard to be not just the human Tohru lived with and loved. She wanted to be more. Not being used to being wanted only worked as an excuse for so long. Tohru did her best, so she would, too. "Tohru."

"Yes?"

"Do you want a milkshake?"

"Huh? I don't really-" Tohru instantly changed her tone when she noticed Lucoa and Elma sharing a milkshake from one straw. "Yes, please!" And before Kobayashi could say anything else, Tohru dashed off, coming to a screeching halt in front of the feathered serpent. "Where did you buy that?!" Her tone made it sound like a matter of life and death.

Being pointed in the right direction, Tohru took off with **nearly** superhuman speed, followed by Kanna, who had paid attention and wanted one of those shakes things for herself. Kobayashi followed them, slowly, with Elma and Lucoa a little miffed that they had to go back the way they came.

"If someone sees how much you enjoy your treats, they cannot help but want them yourself." Lucoa bend forward and used the straw. Sharing a straw was really nothing worth mentioning to her, but Elma was holding back in a strange way instead of devouring it all on her own.

"Do you think I could become a food critic?! Like, have a food blog and just make money from eating and writing about it?!" The possibility excited Elma. It was like a dream come true.

"Turning what you love into work might make it less enjoyable. And you'd have to eat things you don't like."

"Come to think of it I do like working with a computer." A fleeting dream it was.

When the five of them met up again, Kobayashi held a medium size milkshake with a single straw – connected to Tohru's mouth at the present moment.

"My last suggestion got us all wet and bothered, so I think I'll sit back from recommending anything else." Lucoa felt just a little bad. Kobayashi and co. were basically dry because it had been excruciatingly hot in the house of horrors.

The human's first instinct was to ask Kanna what she would like to do, but not only did she assume that Kanna would be excited with most things but technically she was on a date with Tohru. "Tohru, anything you want to do?"

"That big wheel thing we saw on our way here!"

"The Ferris Wheel? That will make for a nice change of pace from all this walking around." _My legs are going to kill me tomorrow_.

"We're coming too!" Elma distinctly remembered from the park guide that there was a small place that sold special park macarons there. Of course she wouldn't tell any of them that up front.

Kanna walked a little ahead of everyone else, quite pleased with herself being able to easily outpace the others thanks to her long legs. There was not a lot of space between the two couples and Tohru started a conversation with Lucoa about her work. "That's expensive."

"It is not **cheap** but it is a one-time only investment. The box draws in your magical power and generates more of the powder over time so you never run out. Of course, if your magical power is weak, like a human mage, it won't be enough and you will need to have someone help you with their magic power."

"Still…" Tohru was tempted but she didn't want to strain their home budget for something personal.

"Do you want it?" Kobayashi on the other hand figured that since she wasn't paying Tohru, she should at least get her the things she wanted.

"I do, but it's expensive."

"What exactly does this orihalcum powder stone even do?" _Just powder could be used for a lot of things, but a stone?_ _I can't even speculate what it does_.

"It's for chewing." Lucoa offered, helpfully. "A dragon's teeth are basically indestructible, and they become too sharp and start to cut into the flesh inside the mouth if the dragon doesn't regularly chew on something hard."

"How did you handle that in the other world?" Kobayashi noticed a slightly excited look on Tohru's face. "Wait. I know this pattern. Something hard to chew on. And your world is all medieval, right? You were chewing on soldiers in heavy armor."

Elma burst into laughing. "She has you all figured out!"

"At least I didn't have to chew on mineral rocks on the sea bed!"

"There is nothing wrong with that!"

"Stop." Lucoa pinched Elma's cheek and glared at Tohru with just one eye. "How have you been dealing with your teeth in this world, Tohru?"

Tohru was embarrassed to talk about that. "I kind of left it alone. I figured I would go to another world and find an eternity tree or something to grind my teeth on when it got too bad."

"Is this like brushing your teeth for dragons?" Kobayashi understood what the problem was, but she still needed to put it into a more human analogy.

"It's closer to having calculus removed." Lucoa had looked up an analogy because between regular otherworldly beings and humans, there was basically no difference in how little they knew about dragons and she wanted to be able to explain things.

"Brushing your teeth in your human form isn't enough?"

"It helps and draws out the process." Tohru did brush her teeth regularly.

"How much was that stone?" Kobayashi had not just one but two dragons at home and most of all she didn't want Kanna to have trouble with her teeth.

"Tohru is already plenty powerful so she can probably generate enough stones for herself and Kanna." Lucoa proved to be quite the saleswoman. "The box is 117,000 yen. It does have a lifetime warranty and doesn't even need to be cleaned or anything."

 _Expensive!_ Kobayashi's expression revealed immediately what she thought and Lucoa glanced at Elma. She had a box like that at home herself and Elma got to use it free of charge. "I am sure we could work something out. And since all three of you are good friends to me and Elma, I will give you a nice discount."

"Thank you." Kobayashi knew she would have to be pretty frugal for a while, even with a discount. But if such a thing would make life easier for Tohru and Kanna, she would happily put up with that.

"I have been struggling to clean the shop. I would pay you a nice premium if you could let Tohru come over to clean once or twice a week."

Tohru was not too happy with that idea. "I am Kobayashi-san's maid. Not just any maid you can hire."

"Wait." Kobayashi whispered to her maid. "I do want you to have that box. And aren't you sometimes bored at home after you finish chores?"

"Well, I am, but… are you really okay with this, Kobayashi-san? That I'd be someone else's maid."

"You would just help out a friend and happen to get paid for it. You're still just my maid. It would be like a secret mission."

"I suppose I shouldn't be picky."

Reaching the ferris wheel while they talked, Kanna came running at them. "Kobayashi! I'll go watch that!" Kanna wasn't excited by the big wheel and instead wanted to go watch an open air magic show that was put on by the park's entertainers.

"Stay there, okay? I'd be worried if we came back from the ride and couldn't find you."

"Uh huh. I promise." Kanna was so excited that she ran off without waiting for another answer. The show had already started and the staff was introducing herself.

Tohru, Lucoa and Elma joined Kobayashi for a short moment, watching the show from the distance. Lucoa was the first to point out the obvious. "They're not human."

Kobayashi felt like she should have some big reaction but she just couldn't muster the surprise. "Are they also dragons?"

"I think they are fairies?" Elma stared really intensely at the four costumed girls. "One of them looks definitely like a fairy, but the blue one is more… like a mermaid?"

"Mermaids are real too?" Kobayashi looked disillusioned with the world. "Why did I even ask?"

Tohru couldn't pinpoint their nature either. "The one with the flame dress and the ginger hair… she's definitely some kind of fire elemental." _I think_.

"A salamander." Lucoa had been around for long enough to sense the specific type of magic energy that radiated off otherworldly things. "The one next to her is an undine, a water elemental maiden. The other two are a Sylph, a wind elemental known for their hyper personality and… usually, the brown haired one would be a gnome in this scenario, an earth elemental that is very hard working and dedicated, but I think she is some other kind of earth elemental."

"You can tell all that from here?" Kobayashi was absolutely perplexed and it didn't help that both Tohru and Elma looked at Lucoa with admiration.

"I have been around a **long** time. And I lived in a settlement of elementals for a while, about… two and a half thousand years ago, I guess"

"You can probably keep story time at a campfire going indefinitely." Kobayashi joked and then it dawned on her that it was probably true. "Should we go? Maybe we can spot Kanna from the top of the Ferris Wheel."

"Let's go!" Tohru was eager to spend some moments with Kobayashi alone. She was fully aware of how well indulged she had been so far but she figured she could push her luck a little.

Elma was as excited as Tohru was but for entirely different reasons. While the others got in line, she hurried over to the macaron place and got a double order – one for herself and one to share with Lucoa. If Kobayashi wanted some, she could buy them herself.

The line for the ferris wheel was surprisingly short – and they quickly found out why. "It's hot… Tohru, is this how humans feel right before they are hit with your flame breath?" Kobayashi lifted up her skirt, desperately trying to fan cool air below it. Even Tohru was suffering from the oven they were in and sweating quite heavily.

"To think a human contraption could be this effective against me… my pride won't allow-" Tohru was stopped just short of kicking the door out of the cabin. Kobayashi grabbed her hand and that killed her rage.

Pulling Tohru to the seat by her side, Kobayashi then turned and pointed out the back window, to the next cabin, containing Lucoa and Elma. "Look."

Lucoa was really suffering in the heat but Elma had it even worse. Her horn and tail were showing – she just didn't have the concentration to hide them. It had to be over forty-five degree celsius in the cabins, if not even over fifty in some.

"Tohru, can't you cast some kind of magic to create air conditioning?" Kobayashi felt like she was being grilled alive.

Tohru grumbled a little. "I'm sorry… that's not really my specialization. I don't feel the heat when I'm in dragon form so I never… I'm really sorry! If I hadn't asked to come here-"

"It's okay. I'm just bothered that I might reek of sweat after we get out."

"Ah, I can make **that** go away at least. You remember when I told you that it was kind of inconvenient to get clean as a dragon when it didn't rain or no big waterfall was close by? I was taught a little spell that masks all bodily smells. But… it does make everything smell like pine tree for some reason for a few hours."

"Pine trees?"

"A druid taught me the spell." _After I threatened to eat him._

"Do you think you could be nice and cast it on Lucoa and Elma if they don't know it themselves?"

"Why-" Tohru didn't get very far with her complaint. Kobayashi was asking her for a favor with a smile, despite the boiling temperatures, and there was no way she could turn her down like this. "I understand. I don't want to be around something that smells like grilled fish either."

"Are you… talking about Elma?"

"She's a water dragon. Might as well be a fish. Is as obedient to her superiors as a fish, too."

"Be nice." Kobayashi's smile waned a little. "It's been a while since she even mentioned taking you to the other world."

"I still don't like her."

"Not liking her and acting like it can be different things. People do it all the time."

"Why are you so fixated on me being nice to Elma? You're not secretly cheating-"

"Do you think there is anyone stupid enough to try and hit on the girlfriend of a goddess? They would be dust in five seconds."

"You're right. I'm sorry. Today has been a bit much for my heart."

"Is it making you happy?"

"Yes!"

"Then I'm happy too." _I won't tell her that it is because of Lucoa that I'm pushing myself like this._

"Ehehe." Tohru smiled and rocked back and forth on her seat. "It makes me feel like we're a couple."

"I'm trying my best." Kobayashi was very open and honest about her situation. That hadn't changed at all. Even though she hid very small things that would only annoy Tohru.

"Am I… taking advantage of you?"

"What makes you think that?"

"You're going out of your way to open up to me… trying to return my feelings and everything. After I practically forced my way into your life."

"Do you really think all of that?"

"W-What do you mean?"

"If I didn't want to return your feelings, I wouldn't. No sense of obligation goes that far. I'm only having to try my best because my life was devoid of someone like you for so many years. And if I didn't want you in my life, I mean if I wasn't happy with you in my life, do you really think I would have stood up to your dad? A really big, scary dragon that could wipe out Japan if he wanted? Ah… remembering it gave me a chill."

"I'm gonna whack that old man if he ever lays hands on you again-!" Tohru focused on the one bit that wasn't going to kill her from embarrassment. But running from her feelings was not something Tohru did. "You always sound so reasonable."

"I'm a human surrounded by a dragon maid, a childish dragon, a former goddess, a water dragon, a magician that works at the same company… and a cursed dragon that lives with my closest co-worker. If I'm not reasonable, who will?" Kobayashi looked with anticipation at the window – they had passed the highest point and were now descending.

"I-I'm sure there are other humans out there that are in unusual situations!"

"I'd like to meet them. Exchange tips on how to stop our dragons from trying to slip us tail meat."

"I haven't done that in a while!"

As they kept going back and forth with playful banter, the cabin finally reached the ground again. Kobayashi was so eager to get out that she stumbled over a metal rail on the floor and would have hit the floor without Tohru. "Thanks."

"No, no, you're welcome."

Thirty seconds after they had left, Lucoa and Elma emerged from their oven as well, looking like they had been baked alive. Elma specifically was in a bad condition, her shirt sticking to her chest, wet with her sweat. If not for Lucoa placing a concealment spell on her, it would have been a strange sight – a woman with a lizard tail and a horn walking around.

Leading Elma to a nearby bench, she was looking pretty pale. "To think I would be done in by a human contraption…" Elma didn't just look bad but also sounded bad. So much that even Tohru couldn't find anything mean to say.

"I will be taking Elma to somewhere cool so she can rest." Lucoa looked worried about her girlfriend. "But really, is this something humans view as entertainment now? Self-imposed torture?"

"That ride was just badly designed. Usually these things have at least open windows." Kobayashi was not feeling so good herself. "Tohru, can you go and get Kanna?"

"You don't have to leave because of us." Lucoa felt responsible.

"We're not leaving. But I am going to buy an extra large iced something and sit in the shade for thirty minutes or an hour." Kobayashi gave Elma another look. "Is she going to be okay?"

"She's a dragon. She just doesn't take well to the heat."

"Give me an hour… and I'll be as good as new..." Elma felt dizzy. Being in her human form had its share of troubles and the heat getting to her like this was one of them.

"That's reassuring." Seeing Tohru approach with Kanna, Kobayashi said her goodbyes and left. "Oh, I'll text you later to see if you're still in the park."

And so, Lucoa and Elma were left by themselves. It didn't take long for Elma to recover enough to walk around. "Ugh… I can't believe this happened to me." They were on their way to a nice and somewhat secluded place that primarily sold cold deserts, like ice cream and cooled waffles with cream.

"I could have cast a spell to make things easier for us." Lucoa pulled back one chair as she passed it. She wasn't polite enough to pull it back and do the whole routine sit down, push chair routine with Elma though.

"No, this is my own fault. If that unruly chaos dragon can keep her magic to herself, so can I."

 _I am pretty sure Tohru just doesn't know about these kind of spells_. "Do you want to stick around after we cool down?"

"Stick around? You picked up some funny language." Elma was a little amused by this and then her head felt like it was splitting, again. When the waitress came, Elma just let her girlfriend order for her.

"Maybe we should have gone to the zoo instead."

"A little heat won't ruin my day."

"I'm glad." Prodding Elma's feet with her own, Lucoa was pretty happy with how things had turned out between them. "I'm glad you decided to stay in the human world."

"Me too." Elma almost snatched drinks the waitress delivered to their table out of her hands, hastily downing the ice cold cola and feeling her insides contract from the chilly drink.

"Even though your motivation was a bit iffy."

"I was just following orders."

"And now?"

Elma blushed but still managed to look straight at Lucoa. "Following my heart." Elma loved it when she could be honest with herself and it made Lucoa blush on top of it.

"I wonder if that goddess that cursed you did so knowing that I would break it."

"You mean she set us up to be together?" Emptying her glass, Elma felt somewhat refreshed already. Although the heat was crawling up on her again, despite the shadows she sat in. It wasn't really heat from around her but within.

"She is a goddess of love if I remember right."

"I… maybe I should replace the offering."

"You're that thankful to her?"

"I never even thought about romance before. So when all this happened it was really confusing for me. But I'm really glad things ended up like this. Who knows if I had ever thought about dating someone if I didn't ea- get cursed." _I almost said **eat** the curse_.

"If you want to please a goddess, choose an offering that won't spoil, that will withstand the rain – something that others can see and be inspired to leave offerings of their own."

"One day you'll have to tell me what it is like, being a goddess."

"I can tell you a story right now if you would like. While we wait for the ice." Lucoa hoped that Elma would be happy with what she had ordered. It was a bit expensive, but if she didn't use money to entertain her girlfriend, what else was she gonna use it for? As a former goddess she didn't exactly want for many things.

"Do you know who invented pizza?"

"My… involvement in history was a little less specific to individual people." _Pizza?_

"Sushi. Sushi is like a national treasure of Japan! That can't have been invented by just one person!"

"Elma, I love you but you think about food just a little too much." Lucoa rubbed her right foot against Elma's feet. "I know about the time when the byzantine empire fell. When the religion of the monotheistic god was created. I saw what happened when the great miasma rolled across Europe and the aftermath, the time of the great blossoming of the arts. The great wars for freedom of the English, where the tale of the legendary king originated." Lucoa talked and talked and with each mention of a great event in history, Elma's face lit up a little. "See, there are interesting things other than food."

"I don't know about any of those but it sounds really interesting." Elma was quite interested in the movies humans made – they only had live theater in the other world. Technology was quite marvelous once you got accustomed to it.

"You don't… know any of those?" _I underestimated how secluded the harmony faction is from this world._ "I'm sure we can find some movies on those topics and I can tell you what really happened."

"If we're talking about movies, that means popcorn!"

Lucoa let out a little sigh, accompanied by a big, happy smile. _There is no changing her. And even if there was, I wouldn't. I like her like she is. Even if she is a glutton. A helplessly gluttonous glutton. She might have been Beelzebub in another life of if she was born a demon._ Lucoa paused a moment in her thoughts. _She might still look cute with dark skin, blood red hair and yellow eyes._ "Yes, popcorn. But no more than one bucket per movie."

"At least I'll never get fat as long as you live with me."

Both ladies smiled at each other, like the simple-minded dragons, the simplegons, they were. Until their ice cream was brought to them. Elma attacked the premium extra large deluxe parfait, that was normally for two people, on her own while Lucoa enjoyed a much more appropriately sized tropical one. Elma was halfway through her parfait, when Lucoa fed her a bit of fruit. _I want this kind of life to last forever. What do the humans say? And they lived happily ever after_.

=== Order seconds? ===


	3. Chapter 3

"Kobayashi-san! Do you want fish or meat for dinner?" Tohru didn't just call out to her girlfriend from the kitchen but walked all the way into the living room to ask.

"Fish is fine." _We only just had meat yesterday and the day before and I don't have the energy to look out for hidden tail meat today_.

Returning to the kitchen, Tohru had barely been there for a minute when something else came up. "Kobayashi-san. Want do you want as a side dish?"

"Surprise me."

"You got it!" Tohru was already on her way back to the kitchen when the voice of her master stopped her.

"Tohru." Kobayashi put down the small novel she was reading.

"Yes?" Turning around, she had a questioning look on her face.

"Keep the surprises limited to planet earth." The money maker of the household had a slightly grim expression as she said that.

"But-"

"The last time I spent half the night in the bathroom." Grim turned to exhausted. Just remembering that _surprise_ was upsetting her stomach. _If only I had ordered pizza that day instead._

"I can do that. It's a bit late to go to the other world and grab things anyway." And Tohru finally returned for the kitchen for the exceptionally long period of two and a half minutes. "Kobayashi-san."

Said woman was getting a little bit irritated now. "You do know that you don't need to ask me for every little thing, Tohru."

"Ah, no, I was just curious how your day at work went. Elma and part of your division was temporarily transferred to help out another workplace, right?" Tohru stood by the table, ready to return to the kitchen when she heard the signal.

 _Is the kitchen okay without her?_ "I'm surprised you remember that today was the first day with them gone." Putting the novel on the floor next to her, Kobayashi got off the ground and sat on the couch instead. "It was a bit quieter than usual. It doesn't really impact my work at all. It's kind of calm even."

"You've been home before night this entire month! Kanna is really happy that we can always eat dinner together." Tohru suddenly became more excited. "Of course I'm really excited as well!"

"I can tell." Kobayashi looked just a smidgen embarrassed to admit to that.

It had been a few weeks since they all went to that amusement park, and even though she had tried pretty hard, she could only give Tohru the tiniest of fingers at a time or she would swallow the whole hand. And so they progressed at a glacial rate. But for the lady of the house, that was fine. It gave her time to sort out her feelings. Which were pretty complicated, considering that she was dating a dragon that was from another world, had battled a god, perhaps **the** god, and was also the daughter of, what was it, the lord of chaos or something. Each time she thought about it like that, she wondered how exactly she was going to ever explain this to anyone else. _Probably best I don't even try_ , was the usual answer to that.

"With that glutton Elma gone, it must be way more relaxing at work, right?" Tohru rarely ignored a chance to make fun of Elma. After all, she had quite literally succumbed to the human food of this world and started working because of that. _The order faction is so silly_. The irony of her own situation was not lost on Tohru but willfully ignored instead. Another peak one got from being, in the most technical sense at least, **evil**.

"She is actually kind of useful now. She's been sneaking a lot less snacks during work since Lucoa moved in with her, too."

"You can tell because nobody is yelling at her, right?" Tohru looked smug as she said that.

"Mostly."

As they spoke of the devil, the doorbell rang and only then did Kobayashi realize that the first day of Elma being gone was also the date of something else. "Crap, I forgot that Lucoa and Elma were invited for dinner tonight. I'm sorry, Tohru."

"It's fine, I was just warming up the grill, I haven't cut or sliced anything yet!" Rushing to get the door, shouting _I'm on my way_ , Tohru didn't need to actually fake a smile when she saw only Lucoa wait out there. It wasn't fully dark yet, just past seven, and with the summer temperatures, it was still pretty hot out there. And despite that, Lucoa still wore that black sweater she basically always wore now.

"Welcome." Kobayashi didn't bother getting up. The ex-goddess had been over so many times that it didn't really feel like she had to formally greet her anymore.

"I brought a little something, as agreed." Lucoa handed a plastic bag off to Tohru, who judged that Lucoa's idea of **little something** had been completely warped by the standards of that walking Black Hole Dragon. "Tohru, wait a moment." Pulling something out of the huge plastic bag, the bag weighted at least five kilos, Lucoa carried the something, a six pack of beer, with her to the table in the living room. "A little treat." Putting the beer on the table, Lucoa sat on the couch to the other side of the table, making it so that when Elma arrived, they could sit together.

"Nice, thanks. You mind if I help myself?" Kobayashi could really put away beer and sake, despite her slim build. And not only that, she **liked** putting it away.

"Go ahead."

Cracking open a beer and taking the first sip, Kobayashi responded with an amazing reaction. Looking disgusted, sticking out her tongue for a brief moment, her face seemed to want to run away from her body. "It's… really warm."

"Oh my." Lucoa leaned backwards and checked out Tohru, who was now adjusting dinner plans to make use of whatever Lucoa had brought. "Tohru, you mind if I use a bit of magic?"

"Huh? You don't really have to ask me about that. Sure, go ahead." _I guess she's finally figured out a bit of common sense. Although her outfit is still pretty outlandish._

Reading Kobayashi's thoughts through her face, Lucoa chuckled. "Elma has been trying to drill what she calls _human common sense_ into me. She said it is good manners to ask the host for permission before we start to use our magic for convenience."

Reaching out to Kobayashi's beer, Lucoa created a small blue circle around it and the can immediately got so cold that Kobayashi looked excited. Putting it to her lips, she hesitated. "You're not going to drink?"

"Ah… I will after Elma joins us."

 _Oh. Right. Lucoa had a problem with alcohol in the past._ Kobayashi tended to forget that a lot. "Where **is** Elma anyway?"

"She sent me a text earlier." Lucoa reached for the top of her chest out of reflex, as if she wanted to pull a cellphone from between her breasts, and then remembered she put it in the back pocket of her pants now. "It took me a little while to get used to this but Elma insisted I get the hang of it. I'm worried she's taking after Fafnir too much."

"He's really taken by technology." _Or games, rather._

"She said she'll be late because the lead programmer kept her there." Lucoa stared really intently at the small screen and then showed it to Kobayashi. "How do you read this?"

"A… Ahagon?" Kobayashi guessed. "The company that hired the extras from our division is a game company, right? It's a bit unusual since we're not really dealing much with that end of the business."

"She said it was for something called DMR."

"Do you mean DRM? It's to protect software against thieves."

"Kobayashi-san, do you mind if I make something Italian? Lucoa brought a bunch of good tomatoes, western noodles and mushrooms." Tohru had showed up again.

"That sounds good actually. It might go well with some cold beer, too. Thanks, Tohru."

"It's my pleasure! I'll cook you some amazing improved Italian-"

"Don't improve it. Remember what happened to your improved French dish."

"T-That's was a one time mistake! I did it correctly the next time!"

"And we agreed I'll be happy to try whatever you want to spice up after you cooked the base dish once."

Tohru pouted a little after being reminded that she had indeed made such an agreement. "I understand."

Getting comfortable on the couch, Kobayashi continued her conversation from before. "So Elma is working at… what was it? E… Eel Jam?"

Lucoa raised her right hand. "Eagle Jump."

"So how is Elma at home? It's been a while since you moved in together." Kobayashi was curious about it but again her conversation was interrupted, this time by something very small and almost criminally cute. "Kanna. Did you finish your homework?"

Nodding softly, the small dragon handed over a notebook. "Can you check it for me, Kobayashi?" Kanna's attention was immediately diverted to the nice smell that was just now starting to come from the kitchen. "Tohru, what are you making?" Bouncing around the chaos dragon like a fluffy ball of excitement, Kanna pestered her until Tohru explained things to her.

Looking over Kanna's homework, Kobayashi felt strangely relaxed. _Oh, she's doing advanced multiplication correctly now. She's such a smart girl- ah, she missed a decimal there. I'll show her how to do this later._

"You look almost like her mother." Lucoa felt a hint of worry when Kobayashi looked up from the notebook, confused about what she had said. "Is that a sensitive subject?"

"No, I just realized you're right. Although I guess I skipped past the most troublesome stage."

"Dragons age slowly, but at her age and yours, you'll still be around for when she hits her rebellious phase." Lucoa smiled gently at first and then much more strongly when Kobayashi glanced towards the kitchen and looked a little tired.

"How old do I have to get before that happens?"

"Another ten, maybe twenty years? It's hard to tell exactly because she's living in this side of the worlds. There are so many outside influences to which her body adapts."

"You seem to know an awful lot about this." Kobayashi continued on with her beer and leaned back while she checked Kanna's homework for errors. _She's gotten pretty good with her hand writing. Might be better than mine actually. Tohru always complains she can't read my notes._

"Some centuries ago, maybe a thousand years actually or thereabout, there was a dragon that lived among humans, grew up with them and eventually became a king. I think he has this really big legend in the western hemisphere. King A… Atlus? That seems wrong."

Kobayashi looked at Lucoa the same way as when she had first seen Tohru in her dragon form. "You don't mean… King Arthur? The legendary king of the English?"

"Yes! That's the one. He had a really powerful human mage friend too. I remember he was a really perverted person though. He was always slapping my butt. And- Kobayashi-san? Is everything alright?"

"H-Huh? Oh, yeah. Just… gonna need a moment to deal with the fact that King Arthur really existed but was a dragon and that Merlin was apparently a pervert."

"Shouldn't I have told you that?" Lucoa still didn't have a good grasp of what she should tell Kobayashi and what not. _She knows all about dragons and a bit of the other world, so I thought telling her about old stories would be okay._

"No, it's fine, don't worry about it." Kobayashi finished her beer and then looked over the last few problems in Kanna's math homework. "Kanna, come here for a second."

While Kobayashi was pointing out the two math errors that Kanna had made and explained to her how to fix them, the doorbell went off. "Lucoa, can you go and get it? I can't leave the kitchen right now!" Tohru was busying frying some sauce. _I'll seduce Kobayashi-san with my special cooking!_

"Excuse me." Elma announced herself with a big smile, dropping off a pack of sweets by the table. But instead of heading into the living room to say hello to Kobayashi, she was captured and enthralled by the tasty smells that came from the kitchen. Immediately assaulting Tohru with questions, Kobayashi watched the scene unfold from the distance.

 _I'm glad she's calmed down around Elma a little. She still gets a bit feisty with her, but it's a big change from sending her to another continent._ _I think I'll treat her to something later._ "I see Elma hasn't changed."

Lucoa turned around and gave Elma a quick glance. "I don't think she'll ever change when it comes to her stomach. But that's just part of her charm."

"Does it ever get difficult?" Kobayashi was just a bit younger than Lucoa, only a few thousand years, so she was secretly looking for some dating advice.

"There are so many places to go out and eat at that I never have to look far for a spot to go on a date." Lucoa was sharp enough to understand what Kobayashi was looking for. "I think Tohru would enjoy something where you can be alone the most."

"Am I that obvious?" The only human in the room was feeling a little embarrassed over being read like a book.

"Not at all."

"You didn't read my thoughts with magic, right?"

"Mind reading is actually really difficult and requires the caster to own something personal of the target." Lucoa was well versed in many types of magic. "Contrary to what most humans think, magic is not something you're born with. I don't think Tohru would appreciate it if I taught you any."

"I'm not looking to be a mage anyway." Kobayashi was petting Kanna's head, the tiny dragon swaying back and forth a little, her tail going back and forth in the opposite direction.

Lucoa turned around and looked at the kitchen, where Tohru was trying to get the sea serpent out of her hair. "Elma, how long are you going to bother Tohru?"

"I'm not bothering any-" Elma responded with a pout and was immediately shoved out of the kitchen because she let her guard down for a moment. "Hey!"

"Elma." Lucoa waved her girlfriend over and she followed the ex-goddess' invitation.

"Kobayashi." Elma finally said her hellos and then sat by Lucoa's side for just a second before she got up again and grabbed a beer. "You're lucky you didn't get re-assigned."

"Is it that bad?"

"Their lead programmer is scary. And there's a debugger that is constantly flirting with her, which just makes her angrier. I wish she'd get a clue… she can't read the atmosphere at all!"

Kobayashi and Lucoa both didn't say anything both exchanged amused looks that totally flew over Elma's head. "I'm impressed you got good enough that they brought you in to create DRM."

"Kobayashi, more." Kanna complained with a childish grumble about the lack of continuing head pats, a disastrous problem that was promptly fixed by her surrogate parent.

Next was Tohru. "Kobayashi-san, can you come and try the sauce?"

"I'll be right back Kanna." Leaving the small bundle of fluffiness behind, who just laid face down on the couch instead, Kobayashi joined up with her new _girlfriend_. That had to be said in a special way that was reserved for things that were technically true but a bit lacking in practice. Looking at the chaos in the kitchen, Kobayashi was happy that Tohru also cleaned up after herself.

"Here." Tohru tamed her inner lust dragon and just held out a tasting cup to Kobayashi. _Calm… calm… just like a normal maid_. It was advice she had gotten from Lucoa. Kobayashi was, according to Lucoa, the type that needed a delicate, slow approach, even though that was absolutely not her style. But she was a mighty dragon! Self-control was definitely one of her powers! Otherwise, she surely would have eradicated all the humans other than Kobayashi-san already!

Trying the sauce, Kobayashi paused a moment before she nodded approvingly. "See, if you mostly follow the recipe, you make some really tasty food."

"I totally followed it!"

"You added garlic and onions." Kobayashi could not taste them but she saw the remainder of the chopped bits.

"Human palates are scary." Tohru took back the cup and added a bit of seasoning to the sauce. "I knew I was right to spice it up a little! I'll do my absolute best for you, Ko-" Tohru stopped and cleared her throat."I'm glad you like it."

Kobayashi chuckled twice and then broke into a soft laughter. "It's really cute, the great Tohru trying to be all collected." For how hard Tohru was trying, Kobayashi tried to meet that effort. Taking the dragon maid's free hand, Kobayashi smiled at her as much as her shyness allowed.

The maid's tail slammed the ground once, then twice, then rapidly when Kobayashi started to blush. Tohru mindlessly stirring a sauce that was already finished and Kobayashi shyly looking away while holding her maid's hand, their little moment was interrupted by an adorable distraction.

"Tohru. Kobayashi. The noodles are already boiling..." Kanna's comment caused them to finally separate; Tohru focusing on the cooking and Kobayashi hastily patting Kanna's head so she wouldn't get any weird ideas. But it was too late. "Lewd Kobayashi. Lewd Tohru."

"Kanna has keen eyes." Lucoa was poking a little fun at the young couple.

"What a simpleton you are, Tohru, getting excited over- ow, ow!" Elma went for more than just a **little** fun and promptly got her just desserts in the form of Lucoa pinching the tip of her tail. There were few places and fewer people still around whom they could be mostly themselves. They were used to their human forms, but showing their tails and horns was something that just gave them a strange sense of comfort, of being in a familiar and trustworthy place.

"No dinner for the rude puddle serpent!" Tohru bared her teeth and she too immediately earned her reward; Kobayashi pulled on her horns, similar to humans would pull on each other's ears. It didn't have the same effect however. Tohru just grinned like a happy kid instead.

"Is Tohru tsundere for Elma?" Kanna sometimes sad very interesting things; things she had picked up somewhere.

"Gross!" Elma shook from head to tail, literally. "I don't understand what Kobayashi sees in that violent maid!"

Tohru didn't lose any time in retorting. "I feel bad for Lucoa, being tied to someone who can only think with their stomach because their stomach is what takes up their entire being!"

This time the two squabbling dragons received more harsh reactions from their respective partners. "Tohru, cut it out. What kind of maid disrespects her guests like this?" Kobayashi didn't

Elma didn't fare any better than that. "We're guests in their house, Elma. This is behavior I'd expect from a chaos dragon, and only the really evil ones."

Both of them lowered their heads and said no more. Two dragons tamed alone by minding words from their loved ones.

Kobayashi was not one to hold grudges however. "I don't expect the two of you to be best friends. But I work with Elma, Lucoa is a good friend of us both and Elma's girlfriend. So both of you need to work a little on your people skills."

Lucoa put her arm around her girlfriend and rested her head against hers. "Now, now, I think they both understand they shouldn't growl at each other like that. Right, Elma?"

"Sorry." Elma understood full and well that getting Lucoa's forgiveness was a top priority. _It's not like she pushes me around or makes me sleep on the couch or anything human like that… but she always spends the night out when I mess up and I sleep like crap without her_.

"It's not my fault-" Tohru noticed the slightly scolding look not going away. "My bad." And with just a whisper, she added something else. "But mostly Elma's."

"Kobayashi, Kobayashi, let's play!" Kanna had used the situation to grab a board game that she was now actively pushing against the woman's legs.

"Usually we wait until after we eat, Kanna. Do you think you can do that?" Patting her head again, Kobayashi tried to console her.

"Can I turn on the TV then?" Kanna didn't watch nearly as much TV as most kids her age, but there were a few shows she really liked. Although lately she was particularly drawn to a re-run of an anime that was about animals in human form. Something called _friends_. Kobayashi didn't admit it to Tohru but she liked to watch it with Kanna.

"Sure. Want me to watch with you?" She was sure Kanna actually knew she herself liked to watch it. Probably because she knew all the names of the characters in the show. Especially that silly but hard working cat that served as the main character's best friend. _Reminds me of Tohru, actually_ , was what Kobayashi thought of her.

"Yup!" Dragging the much taller Kobayashi back to the couch, Kanna jumped on the soft furniture and grabbed the TV remote from the table.

"You two won't mind, do you?" She directed that question at Lucoa and Elma.

"Not at all. In fact, Elma bought some kind of disc that can play these episodes at will the other day. A blue ray, I think it was?" Lucoa was not the most technologically adept but she was learning, most at Elma's insistence.

"So what about it? I like it. I earn money! So I can buy it!" Elma felt oddly defensive about others knowing she bought things that weren't food. And right after, she felt conflicted because everyone **expected** her to just buy food.

"You're talking too much! It's starting!" Kanna was lying flat on her stomach, her legs kicked back and forth.

Lucoa was oddly fascinated by the show as well. Over the next five minutes, the goddess, two dragons and human lounged on the couches in silence, until one of the characters, a bird girl, started to sing in a shrill voice. "This reminds me of the time I met a Banshee in Ireland."

"Banshees are real?" Kobayashi knew what they were, if just barely. And right after asking that, she felt silly. "Of course they are real. If Dragons and Goddesses are real then elves, dwarfs and banshees must be real too."

"Elves are kinda like a branch of humanity though." Elma interjected and grabbed one of the beers. She didn't mind the taste much and it increased her appetite. "Pretty sure dwarfs are also related to humans somehow."

"Huh?" Kobayashi looked at the water serpent with big eyes. "Now that I think about it, fiction doesn't really explain where elves and dwarfs come from."

"There was a type of people that are human but don't get very tall because they and their ancestors have lived in mountainous and underground villages for thousands of years." Lucoa took over explaining and ended up with a big smile when Kanna shushed all three of them.

Lucoa switched spots, leaving Elma by her lonesome, and sat next to Kobayashi who had looked pretty interested. Why those two quietly, so not to disturb Kanna, conversed about the not-existence of dwarfs, Elma got back up and peeked into the kitchen. "Going well?"

"I am cooking for Kobayashi-san. It always goes well." Tohru liked to brag about how far she had come as a maid, even though she still relied a lot on magic. But what point was there in being a dragon if you couldn't make use of your abilities? Remembering Kobayashi's earlier comment, Tohru actually went for a conversation with the water serpent. "Do you or Lucoa cook at your place?"

"Lucoa cooks and cleans up." Elma, too, didn't want to piss off Lucoa by pissing off Tohru. "It's a bit like you and Kobayashi."

"Were you always into women? I didn't think that was a thing with harmony folks." Tohru didn't know a whole lot about the chaos faction, or the harmony faction, so she made some assumptions. Such as whether harmony or order was the actual right term for them.

"We're not that stuck up. It's just about not messing around with humans."

"You haven't given up on your plan to take me back, have you?"

"I don't think it'll hurt me to put it on hold for sixty or seventy years." Elma looked away as she said so, not wanting to indirectly admit to Tohru's face that she was stopping until Kobayashi-san was gone. Dragons lived long and they always talked about how a human life is just a small drop in the bucket, but they still experienced every day as any other living being. Seventy years were over twenty-five thousand days. Plenty of time for Tohru to think about going back voluntarily.

"There **are** the lazarus pit waters and-"

"You'll get into trouble with far worse people than me if you try that. That's a lot worse than stealing water from the elves."

"Well, it's a long time off." Tohru continued to work in the kitchen and Elma continued to stand there. "Having Lucoa and Kobayashi-san breathe down our necks to get along is making this kind of awkward."

"I kinda understand why you don't want to go back. I wouldn't go back without Lucoa either."

Tohru felt strangely put off by Elma being this friendly. "I'm not giving you extra."

"It's not all about food with… me…." Elma's eyes followed a leftover pack of pasta that Tohru was swinging around now. "Stop that!"

"Not all about food, huh? I bet you go to some kind of restaurant for every date!"

"What's wrong with restaurants?"

Tohru opened her mouth and then closed it when she caught a glimpse of Kobayashi checking in on them from the living room. "I guess it makes things easy for Lucoa."

"It's not like you aren't happy no matter where you and Kobayashi go. Honestly, I'm surprised you haven't eaten anyone."

 _I'm kinda tempted to eat Kobayashi-san's boss._ "I don't want even more harmony gluttons on my tail. And Kobayashi-san would be really mad if I ate any humans." Finishing up her preparations, Tohru turned up the stove and rushed past Elma to spend a few quality minutes with Kobayashi. "Did I miss anything?"

Tohru almost lapsed back into old habits and tried to cling to Kobayashi, but instead she sat next to her, slightly leaned forward to look at the TV. And her heart nearly flew right out of her dragon sized chest when Kobayashi leaned against her from the side. "Thanks for making nice with Elma." She was sure that Elma, who she spotted pilfering cookies from the literal cookie jar right before dinner, couldn't hear them from here. "I know it's not easy."

"If-If it's for you, I'll make nice with anybody!" Tohru could just barely keep her tail under control. The whole _pulling, not pushing_ thing was really working out for her.

"Do you think you can serve food at the table here? It might be nice to just casually eat with everyone here while we watch something nice." Kobayashi didn't have the biggest sense for tradition. Comfort superseded a lot of things.

"That's no problem." Tohru was happy to oblige. She personally didn't care for the cartoons that Kanna and Kobayashi seemed to really like, but she didn't mind it either. Noticing the faint smell that Kobayashi carried on her when she came from work, Tohru kept on wondering what it was.

It wasn't quite cigarette smoke or alcohol or paper or even that stuff the machines connected to the computer things used to make text appear on paper. And of course it wasn't sweat either. She knew exactly what **that** smelled like. Kobayashi had forbidden her from doing the laundry by just dissolving dirt with her saliva, but that didn't stop her from smelling Kobayashi's clothes after taking them from the laundry basket.

Dinner for six and a half, Elma and Kanna ate for two while Kobayashi was a light eater, was served just moments later, right as the commercial break of the show came on. Tohru sat to Kobayashi's left and Kanna to her right, on the floor. Elma and Lucoa were on the other couch. Although the plates were served on the table, only Kanna really ate **at** the table. Everyone else had their plates on their lap or held them up to eat.

Elma was wolfing down food so quickly that Lucoa took away her plate for a moment to at least finish chewing. "It's rude to eat like that, Elma."

"I don't mind. I'm sure Tohru feels flattered she likes it so much." Kobayashi looked at her maid and could tell that it was true, even though Tohru hid it perfectly. They had been living together for a while now, being able to notice such things were to be expected.

The show came back on before they had finished eating and even after they had cleaned all of their plates, Kobayashi remained with Kanna, who watched the show with sparkling eyes. Seeing that, Kobayashi wondered if there wasn't maybe a stuffed plush of the show she could get Kanna. After the show was over and Tohru had finished her maid duties, the five of them played a board game until Kanna was almost falling asleep by the table and got carried to bed by her surrogate parents.

Returning from putting Kanna to bed, Kobayashi and Tohru saw Elma and Lucoa off as well, the former pretty drunk and the latter still sober like a judge. And finally, they were alone. Tohru was putting the board game away, but not without looking at everyone's hidden cards. Seeing Kanna's cards, Tohru worried about the future. _She's gotta win the lottery one day._ Meanwhile, Kobayashi laid down on the couch, putting on the TV, more as background noise than anything else.

"I'm glad you were able to get along with Elma. Having my favorite maid get along with my co-workers makes me happy." Turning over, Kobayashi covered her mouth with a half fist and chuckled. _Her tail is wagging back and forth. I guess even small gestures like this make her happy_. "Hosting dinner like this really drives home that we're a family."

"T-Then, I'm the wife, yes?" Tohru flung around, with all the stars of the cosmos glittering in her eyes.

"I'm not sure I like the implication here," she said it with such obvious jest that even Tohru immediately saw it was a joke. "I know I've said this before, but why are all dragons so big?"

"Hm? I suppose because that's just how dragons are? I mean, if we're talking about size, Lucoa is dozens if not a hundred times my size in her true form for example. I think that's why she never takes it in this world. If you're asking why dragons themselves are so large, I don't really know. I wonder if the order faction has any books on that- what's wrong? You look like I said something wrong."

"No. It's nothing." _I don't know if I should be mad or glad that she doesn't realize what I was talking about. But heck, share some dammit!_ Kobayashi had a moment of enlightenment. "But since we're talking about the other world, there are magicians over there, right?"

"Lots of them. We also have elven magic, dwarven magic and some other stuff like necromancy and alchemy. Why? Are you interested in becoming a mage? You shouldn't bother, Kobayashi-san, you're already perfect as you are!"

"Thanks. I'm just a little curious about it. They're probably pretty powerful, right? Are there any magicians that can transform into something else for example? I'd imagine it would be pretty nice to just change what you look like." Sitting up, Kobayashi grabbed a strand of her red hair between her thumb and index finger. "Do you think I'd look good for more traditionally Japanese black hair?"

Tohru squinted for a moment. "That'd remind me of Elma. Please don't do that."

"Blonde then? Like Lucoa?"

"You look great with red hair!"

"Thanks. It's just human nature to sometimes want to change things up."

"If it's just that, I can do a bunch of transmutation magic." Tohru was done cleaning up now and stood next to the couch, her face lighting up like a christmas tree when Kobayashi moved to the side and patted the couch, signaling her to sit down with her.

Throwing holding back out of the window, Tohru jumped on the couch, clinging to Kobayashi's arm and leaning against her. But her restraint was magically enchanted to come back like a boomerang that always managed to fly right in your face and hurt. Trying to back off now was not going to do her any good.

But to her surprise, Kobayashi wasn't trying to rid of her. No, she was even going along with it now! "I never thought I would end up with a dragon as my girlfriend. That is probably more fantasy than most of the fiction that people write. For someone like me, that's a big challenge."

"You even stood up to my old man! You're probably the strongest human there is!" Tohru just followed suit when her human girlfriend leaned back, more relaxed than a moment ago.

"Want to just watch some TV like this?" _Small steps, small steps..._

"Yes!" Tohru settled for small victories now, small pleasures. Her big victory she had already achieved; they were officially dating, although only a handful of people knew.

Staying like this for almost fifteen minutes, Kobayashi rested her head against Tohru's shoulders eventually. "The long weekend starts tomorrow. Do you want to go anywhere?"

Tohru was a smart dragon so she understood that just saying _Anywhere is fine_ was not a good answer. "Hm… we already went to an amusement park a few weeks ago and I don't really like the theater…" Putting her hand on top of Kobayashi's by accident, Tohru smiled wildly when her lady mistress didn't pull her hand away. "I think the Titan's fighting championship is happening in the other world actually!"

"That's exactly what it sounds like, isn't it?" _I always lounge around at home and sleep off fatigue. Maybe I'll cheat a little and ask Tohru for some kind of revitalizing magic item. There is bound to be something like that over there._ "But I don't mind if it's safe to watch."

"You're safe anywhere with me by your side! I could take out a bunch of titans in an iffy!" Tohru liked to brag about her power every now and then.

"But are things okay with you taking a trip to the other world?"

"No problem!"

 _If I suggest we invite Lucoa and Elma she'll probably be disappointed. I guess it'll be just us three. I'm sure she won't mind Kanna coming along._ And just as she thought that, Tohru appeared to have read her like a book.

"Kobayashi-san, do you think that maybe… we can leave Kanna with her friend?"

"I understand it's a bit different from having a date with just the two of us, but don't you think Kanna would like to see titans fighting? It sounds like something she'd like."

"I know, I know… but trying is free!"

"You almost had it. It's asking is free. You're really adjusted well to living in this world. It's kind of making me proud somehow."

"Kobayashi… san..." Tohru was so happy that she threw her arms around the office worker, rubbing her face against the woman's chest; the lack thereof not bothering her at all.

"Tohru, calm down." Patting the dragon's head, right between her horns, Kobayashi pushed her limits like a car pushed the limits after getting some blue nitro. Swiping a few strands of Tohru's blonde hair from her forehead, Kobayashi kissed the dragon. Not on the lips, not on the cheek; those were still too hot for her. The forehead was all she could handle.

And it was more than Tohru could handle. If she had been a machine, the steam that rose from her head wouldn't have seen as unnatural now. But as a Dragon, Tohru was still overheating, her expression slipping and becoming silly as she slid down, resting her head on Kobayashi's lap.

And this intense reaction caused Kobayashi to be embarrassed as well, even though she had managed to stay her feelings until right then. With both of them temporarily out of commission, minutes passed with Tohru just laying there on Kobayashi's lap and the maid's mistress unable to bring herself to make her get back up.

Only when the program conveniently ended did Kobayashi make her move. "Tohru. I still have work tomorrow. Let's go to sleep."

 _Together?!_ _No, of course not… I think she would freak out if I tried that now. Steady… steady… ah, it's so hard to not try and grab what I want! I just wanna pick her up and take her to bed_! "Do we leave tomorrow evening then? Or Friday morning?"

"Friday is fine. I don't want to travel to another world right after coming back from work, without dinner and a bath. But Tohru, I have a favor to ask."

"Anything!"

"Since we're on a date, you should wear something that isn't a maid outfit." Kobayashi paused for a second to see if Tohru would object, but she didn't. "I like your current look, but for the other world, something more… impressive might be nice. Now that I think about it like that… I don't really own anything fancy myself."

"I can get you something to wear! Just leave it to me!" Tohru was suddenly enthusiastic again. _I can just mimic whatever I buy for her in the other world with my scales and we'll have a partner look going on! Take that Elma, I'm pulling ahead of your gluttonous ass!_

"Then-" Kobayashi turned off the TV. "I'll get ready for bed. Goodnight, Tohru."

=== Curses can be a Blessing too ===

"Can't… we… fly… there..." Kobayashi, dressed in the clothes of an elven warrior, a long green skirt, lower arm sleeves magically attached to the skin, a carefully designed upper part of a dress. It didn't do much to conceal her lacking endowments, but with all the otherworldly people around and the big show going on up ahead, nobody cared to even look twice at her; with the exception of Tohru, who couldn't keep her eyes off of her, even though she wore the very same outfit. She didn't hide her horns or tails and she didn't need to; there were dozens of dragons around.

"There is an immensely powerful anti-magic barrier dome over this place. I could probably break it with no sweat, but-"

"We'd get into trouble. I need a break." Kobayashi sat on a nearby rock. They were climbing up a steep grassy slope, just to reach the top of the donut shaped series of hills. In the center, twenty meters beneath the top of the hills, was the magically reinforced arena of the giants.

Kanna was there with them, having borrowed time from Lucoa again. It wasn't that the games were for adults; there was not even any price for admission or something like that. It was merely spectacle that the giants, the titans, let other people watch freely. But Kanna had been exiled from her world. She no longer felt the need to go back there permanently, not with how much fun it was to live with Kobayashi, and still she needed to be in disguise. Wearing the same elven clothing that Tohru and Kobayashi wore, with the bonus of looking so much older, nobody would recognize her.

But longer legs or not, Kanna was bored of walking up this slope and sat down next to Kobayashi. "Kobayashi, you look awesome!" It was the second time she had said that.

"I need to thank Tohru for that." Looking over her shoulder, she waved to the dragon maid that was not actually a maid right now. "Have you seen anyone that you recognize, Kanna?"

Shaking her head and adding a hum of denial, Kanna stretched her legs and enjoyed the feeling of eleven leather boots on her feet. Having long legs and the extra height gave her some new perspective. It made walking around much easier and it was funny to be able to look right over other people.

"Kobayashi-san, Kanna!" Tohru waved to the two of them from about thirty meters out, standing next to a short girl with short platinum blonde hair. She talked to her for a few more seconds before she came running over to her girlfriend. "It looks like the next match will start in one hour!"

"Was that girl a magician? She looked like one." Kobayashi found her curiosity piqued almost non-stop by the wonders of this other world. It was a bother when she just wanted to relax, but once she was actually seeking it out, it was a completely different story. "That purple robe, the big book."

"She's the current Sage of the thousand words. What was her name again… Me… something. I forgot." Holding out her gloved hand to Kobayashi, Tohru helped her up. "There should be some running stalls up ahead at the top."

"Tohru, they don't take Japanese Yen as payment, right? I totally forgot to think about that." _I got a little excited over the trip to another world. I feel like a character in a light novel right now. A little bit at least._

"Don't worry! I thought of that already!" Procuring a leather bag from her waist, Tohru opened up and revealed a bunch of gold coins. "It's kind of expensive to eat and drink here so I brought a lot!"

"I guess the myths about dragons and hoards of gold coins are true." Kobayashi joked and the gag immediately backfired. Tohru looked really proud. "Is that really a thing? Dragons hoarding valuables? Come to think of it, I feel like you've told me about that before."

"Yes, a lot of us do that. Well, not so much anymore, but we still like to surround us with the things we value most! Of course-" Tohru started to wag back and forth with her entire body. "In my case, that's you, Kobayashi-san!"

"Perverted Tohru." Kanna's tongue didn't get any less sharp, no matter what form she took.

"So we still have some time before we have to make it up there, right?" Kobayashi quickly changed the topic away before anyone overheard them. Looking down the hill, it felt more like she was climbing a mountain. They had spent more than twenty minutes getting up here and the slope was pretty steep. _This is definitely a mountain, even though it's called the giant hills_. "Tohru, who named these hills?"

"Hm? I dunno. Probably the giants. I mean, it's their place. Ah, Kobayashi-san, look over there!" Tohru pointed in the distance, where a massive silhouette was approaching from below, quickly climbing the _hill_ with large steps. "That's the next contestant."

Getting a better view as the giant came closer, Kobayashi found that her expectations were betrayed. "I expected them to look more… hm, I don't know. Giants in human legends are often pretty sparsely clothed." The titan, the giant, she looked at was pretty well armored up top and below, wielding an ax so large that it could have fifty trees in one go. "How big is that arena up ahead?"

"Twenty or thirty times as big as the apartment building we used to live in? If they rise up their arms you can see that from down here, but otherwise you have to be up top to see the fight. You can definitely hear the crowd and the fight from here though!" Tohru was a bit excited over seeing the fights herself. It had been a while since she watched, or had, a big fight.

Seeing Tohru's excited face, Kobayashi got back on her feet, patting some grass off her butt. She wasn't the most ladylike person around by a long shot, but that didn't bother her at all. "Kanna." Waiting for the young dragon to stand up, the three of them continued their climb. For Tohru it was simple. For Kanna it was just boring. But for Kobayashi it was tiring.

 _All… this… exercise… better… be… good… for… me…_ Even in her thoughts she was out of breath. But the top was slowly creeping closer. They had left early in the morning and the two worlds had the same day and night cycle. But by now it was almost noon. The Titan Championship ran over sixteen days and this was day eight. The finals would be on the following Sunday.

"Should I carry you? I totally don't mind!" Tohru offered a helping hand, or two, when Kobayashi stopped again, hands on her thighs and bend over. She wasn't used to this much physical exercise. But strangely enough, it didn't seem to aggravate her lower back pain at all.

"No, I'll… make it up there myself. But thank you." _I signed up for this, I'll make it on my own power. This time. I'll definitely let Tohru carry me down later._

By the time the three arrived at the top, Kobayashi was parched and had a red head. "Hills for a giant are mountains for a human…" Falling to her butt and just sitting there, Kobayashi's face lit up with wonder when she realized everything around her. There were thousands of people littering the top of these hills, a horribly steep decline right in front of them, almost like a cliff. And in the center, a giant stage.

"Ah, seeing this makes me want to fight too!" Tohru felt an itch she couldn't scratch. Not during these games and certainly not with Kobayashi here. "It's amazing to look at, isn't it, Kobayashi-san!" Tohru was still full of energy, almost dancing around the exhausted Kobayashi. "I'll go get us something to drink!"

Instead of running away, Tohru put both her thumb and index fingers to her lips and whistled. Or seemed to whistle because no sound escaped her lips. Or so it seemed! Moments after, a dust cloud was rushing towards them and Kobayashi recognized a two-headed dog pulling a big wooden cart that resembled one of those things that Gypsy's were pictured to use to travel around. "Tohru, what's that?"

"The running stalls! They sell drinks and food and because it takes a while to get around here, they constantly walk in a circle. There's six or seven of them here." Tohru explained and waved over the big dog that was at least three heads taller than Tohru and was slobbering quite a lot, even though it wasn't that hot. "Three pure waters and a large bag of fried Kraken please." Tohru placed an order immediately.

Kobayashi couldn't make out who or what was processing that order inside the cart because it was parked in front of Tohru, diagonally to her own position. Three tankards were handed out to Tohru first, making Kobayashi feel amused with her expectations. The dragon quickly handed them over to Kanna and Tohru before she received a big leather bag, big enough to fit a human head with ease, out of the cart and paid for all of it with sixteen gold coins.

Returning to her love's side, Tohru smiled at her. "It's pricey but it's actually bad manners to bring your own meals or drinks here. A bunch of people do that anyway since they can't afford the carts, but those of us that can always pay for stuff."

"Is this just water?" Kobayashi sipped on the contents of the tankard that certainly looked like it contained just water. And sure enough, it mostly was. But it was very cold, very clear, almost unreasonably so. "Is this from some sort of magical spring?"

"Just water from one of the hundred and seven pure springs around the world. They also serve alcohol but we'll be here for a while." Tohru sat about half an arm's length away from Kobayashi and her heart beat a lot faster when the human slid over the grass to sit closer to her. "Kobayashi-san, everyone will know we're together~."

"That's why I moved up." Bending forward to see what was in the bag that Tohru had gotten, it looked like fried squid rings. "Kraken… is that the same legendary sea monster from my world?"

"It's actually a family of giant squid monsters. The water gods breed them for sale to other gods and some higher beings."

"How big are they?" Kobayashi curiously reached into the bag and took one out of the rings. It was five times the size of a regular squid ring. The taste was so good that Kobayashi felt her head filled with almost erotica like descriptions of how delicious it was.

"Bigger than me. But if we're talking about fighting power, I could take on a dozen of them easy!"

 _A squid bigger than Tohru? Now that's scary._ "I wonder why they taste so much better than regular squid."

"Kobayashi, Tohru, I want some too!" Kanna nearly knocked Kobayashi over because she tried to climb over her legs.

The flavor of the Kraken rings was so addictive that Kobayashi just kept eating them. "I guess some food from the other world is pretty good."

"My tail meat is even-"

"Tohru," Kobayashi didn't even need to say anything else. The topic of Tohru's tail meat was one they had gone over countless times already. "But I won't mind if you make something from this world every now and then. But please ask me first."

"Understood!" Tohru wouldn't let her mood take a turn for the worse just because she was shot down on the matter of her tail meat for the 244th time.

"Kobayashi, look!" Kanna pointed at the ring, where now something was slowly growing from below.

Rushing to her feet, Kobayashi took a peek down and saw that the ring was not as simple as it seemed. To the far ends of it, south and north from where she stood, were staircases that were easily overlooked because the arena was all in white stone. But now she could feel the steps of the giant reverberating through the hills. And then another came up, on the opposite side. The match was starting.

Tohru and Kanna both joined Kobayashi, the three of the standing there. While Kobayashi still thought about what to say, the hills erupted in ear deafening cheering for the combatants. Kobayashi herself had to yell to talk to Tohru. "Is it always like this?!"

"It's a big festival!" Tohru yelled back and then went on to cheer.

Kobayashi could make out two names that were being shouted; Hercules and Ares. And she immediately figured that they were the real life equivalents to myth. "Do giants live for thousands of years!? There's myths on earth about Hercules and Ares!"

"Those are just common names for giants! You get six or seven Hercules' every time the festival happens!" Tohru shouted back and then started cheering for Ares, a giant measuring over fifteen meters tall and with a bright red bears, wielding sword and shield.

 _So I guess once upon a time, the two the myths are about were just regular giants from this world?_ Kobayashi figured she'd teased Tohru a little and started shouting Hercules' name instead.

The fight started without much ado and the wind of the giants swinging their weapons around pushed a lot of the audience back. But not Kobayashi, who was held by Tohru with one arm.

The match lasted for almost twenty minutes and Kobayashi felt almost as exhausted as the fighters were when it ended. Standing, raising her arms, shouting and withstanding the constant winds with Tohru's help made her hungry and thirsty. Luckily, nobody dared touch the drinks and food bags of anyone else at these games and their snack was still there.

Sitting back down where they had left their tankards and bag, Kobayashi felt really tired now. "I think I will never be able to look at wrestling back home and actually be impressed. Not after this." Her voice sounded a little hoarse. "I never cheered so much for something. Ever." Picking up her tankard and putting it to her lips, Kobayashi felt immensely refreshed by the cold water.

"It's amazing how you get swept up in the atmosphere, right?" Tohru sat down, looking a lot more excited than even Kobayashi was. "Makes me want to fight, too."

"Do giants have a chance against a dragon as strong as you?"

"I could probably beat most of them easily. But the favorites are **really** strong! If I take a clean hit from them, I'd be in trouble. I bet I could still win against them!"

"So there aren't many things that are stronger than you then?"

"Just a few." _There's a lot actually. A bunch of gods and ex-gods. I probably wouldn't fare too well against the demon king either. Especially not the current one that has a legendary hero at her command. And there's a few really strong chaos and order dragons that I'd have trouble with_. "A handful at most!"

"I remember you sparring with Lucoa before and you did pretty well against her. I guess ex-goddesses are not that strong compared to dragons."

"She always holds back." Kanna spilled the beans. "She's **way** stronger than Tohru!"

"Kanna!" Tohru actually blushed over being exposed like that.

"Eh, so dragons do have some ego over how strong they are." Kobayashi made a little fun of her maid.

"Strength is important in this world!"

"I wonder what Elma will think about this."

"Kobayashi-san!"

"I'm kidding." Getting one of the Kraken rings, she held it in front of Tohru's mouth like a peace offering. "Here. Let me off the hook with that."

Tohru ate right out of Kobayashi's hand. _She's so bold today! It's making me fall for her all over!_ "Should I go and buy some alcohol? Ogre drops go great with these. It's a bit like sake, just stronger."

"Ogres? Is that safe for humans to drink?" Kobayashi was, a little, confident in her ability to drink but _Ogre drops_ sounded like something that could be used as airplane fuel.

"Hm, it is stronger than sake, but I don't think it is much stronger. You can try a little and if you think it is too much we just leave it or give it away."

"Isn't alcohol pricey?"

"I don't do anything useful with the gold coins anyway." _And I have enough to probably buy a city in the human world. But Elma would probably blow fifty gaskets if I tried to bring over a bunch of gold and mess with the human economy._

A few minutes later, Kobayashi was happily enjoying a drink that was basically really just normal sake. Tohru might have said it was stronger, but that was probably because it came in a three liter bottle. That was six times the volume of a can of beer and almost painfully heavy to lift. So Kobayashi sat back and let Tohru pour her drinks.

Kanna had dozed off, lying in the soft and warm grass. The sun was bright in the sky, providing the perfect weather for the competition. If she hadn't borrowed time from Lucoa, she would have looked like a tired child, asleep on the ground. She still looked like that to Kobayashi.

"Are there many festivals like this? I guess it might be nice to visit them once every other month or so." Holding a small cup, that Tohru had bought extra, Kobayashi let her dragon give her another refill. "Thank you for bringing me here, Tohru."

The maid in disguise swayed back and forth from glee. "I'm so happy you like it. I was worried something violent might put you off, but I really wanted to see this."

"It can be nice to leave your comfort zone every now and then. Not too far though." Kobayashi paced herself as well as she could with the sake. _This is really good._ "Do you think we can take the rest of this back for Takiya and Fafnir? It feels selfish to enjoy all of this and not bring anything back as a gift."

Tohru was still not a hundred percent on board with Kobayashi being so casual towards her male co-worker, but she trusted her enough to flat out accept and believe that there was nothing dubious going on there. "We can do that."

"So, are there any other festivals? Maybe something that isn't about fighting." Kobayashi let Tohru refill her cup one more time before she put it down. She didn't feel light headed yet but that was a good sign; the day was still young.

"Something that isn't about fighting… there is the grand scavenger hunt of great Moria in eight or nine weeks."

"A scavenger hunt? Not that's something I didn't expect. But that sounds like a lot of walking." Kobayashi was not too keen on physical activities.

"One of the prizes at the scavenger hunt is a fruit from the Ambrosian tree. It would fix your lower back pain!" Tohru wanted to sell Kobayashi on that event because although it was **about** fighting, fighting was part of it.

"That does sound nice." _I'd be happy to be rid of that. No more heat patches and pain killers._ "There's something you're not telling me. You're always smiling in that particular way when you're hiding something." Kobayashi knew her simplegon well.

"Sometimes, one member of a scavenger group can challenge someone from another group for information or their piece of a puzzle." Tohru tried to look as innocent as a powerful god-fighting chaos dragon possibly could; which was to say, not very innocent at all.

"You're been sacrificing a lot for me, Tohru." Kobayashi moved over the grass, sitting a little closer to Tohru. "I'll go with you. But no killing people. And no fighting everyone we come across."

"You're no fun..." Tohru pouted for a moment but couldn't really be mad at Kobayashi. "But I'll be happy to protect you!"

"When did you say this was?"

"Eight or nine weeks. It's always in the beginning of fall."

"Might be difficult to get time off then..."

"If we can't make it, there is always next time!"

"You're really enthusiastic today."

"Ehehe, it's because we're on a date together!"

 _She's so easy to please. This is just the same thing as when we're at home, just with something different to watch_.Looking over her shoulder, Kobayashi found that Kanna was still asleep. "She might look like this, but she's still a child on the inside."

"Even though she's older than you. It's a bit like dogs and humans, only in reverse!"

"Because we say that one year for a dog is like eight years for a human?" Kobayashi picked up on Tohru's little reference. "Lucoa was telling me about how some dragons adjust to the humans they grow up with. It would certainly makes things easier at school."

"If it doesn't work out, she can always borrow a bit of time from Lucoa or I can use some perception altering spells." Tohru was not too concerned about this. Magic was pretty versatile.

Their conversation was interrupted by Kobayashi's stomach rumbling. All that exercise, the excitement and the alcohol had really emptied out her stomach. "Do they sell any real meals at the carts?"

"I would have brought something homemade but I didn't want anyone to think you didn't have manners, Kobayashi-san." Tohru was ever thoughtful of her mistress. "I do think they sell some real meals. Do you have any preferences?"

"Rice. Bread. Or anything that seems normal." Kobayashi was not a picky eater. "But no eggplants."

"Understood!" Tohru left Kobayashi in charge of their stuff, the tankards, the bag and the sake bottle, stepped away and whistled for one of the carts.

"Tohru." Kobayashi got her attention while they waited for one of the carts to approach. "Thank you for today. I'm really enjoying myself."

The dragon maid blushed like crazy hearing that, her tail appearing from underneath her clothes, hitting the ground a few times and quickly vanishing again because she didn't want to attract attention. _I'm so glad I brought her here!_ _Ah~, I love you, Kobayashi-san!_

Ordering from the food truck, Tohru got something very simple for all three of them. Three large wooden bowls of _Human Spaghetti_. But in contrast to the frightening name, it didn't contain anything unusual. It was basically regular spaghetti with white sauce and bacon. "So they call it Human Spaghetti because it's basically spaghetti made the same way humans make it?" Kobayashi stuffed a fork full of spaghetti into her mouth and much like the Kraken rings, it was quite delicious.

"Probably." Tohru liked human cuisine. It was pretty easy to get leftovers out from between her teeth, unlike armor pieces if she ate a bunch of pesky wannabe heroes.

"I like what you cook a bit better though." Kobayashi was not one to lie or exaggerate about food. Tohru was a good cook by now, but these were expensive on-location foods that tasted even better because of how and where they were served. "What is that Moria scavenger hunt like?"

"It was once a great city with ever more complex streets and towering buildings. They kept building more and more on top of it and beneath it too. And they got so greedy that one of the earth gods sunk the entire city underground. But even that didn't stop the people there from building and they started digging tunnels into the rocks around them. It's now a gigantic labyrinth. All of this happened before I was born, so I don't know the details but the scavenger hunt has been an event for as long as I can remember." Tohru looked incredibly proud that she could showcase her superior dragon intellect. "I participated a few times before on my own but I never won."

"That sounds more like an adventure than a date."

"Adventures can be romantic!"

"If we want to win, we should bring more people though."

Tohru new what Kobayashi was getting at and while she wasn't too happy about it, she wanted to win more than she wanted to be alone with Kobayashi. "I guess we can ask Lucoa for help."

"That means Elma will come as well."

"We'll have a sacrificial pawn then!"

"Tohru." Kobayashi couldn't help but chuckle at that. Finishing up her meal, Kobayashi imitated Kanna and laid down in the grass, looking up at Tohru, who had the sun behind her now. _The maid outfit she wears hide it a little bit but she is really beautiful._

"Should I wake you for the next match?"

"Won't the match and the cheering wake me anyway?"

"I'll wake you right before it starts then!" Tohru looked down at Kobayashi, who had already fallen asleep. With her stomach full and her body tired from the unusual amount of exercise, compounded with the warmth of the sun and the softness of the grass, the office lady in elven clothing had just fallen asleep almost instantly. "I love you, Kobayashi-san." That day, Tohru didn't receive an answer to that, but she could tell that the woman she so liked was changing and starting to return her feelings.


	4. Chapter 4

_Like all my work, this was produced thanks to the generosity of my patrons at . For as little as 5$ a month you can influence what I write. (And I get to eat)_

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It was any other regular day for the people in Velvelfall, the town of the tiny craftsmen. Populated by the Lilts, a race of small humanoids that rarely grew taller than one meter and had fur all over their body sans their face, it was one of the busiest cities in the other world, where Tohru, Elma and Kanna all hailed from.

One of those, Elma, was just now bartering with one of the Lilts for a delicacy among water serpents – the fins of a serenity goldfish, a large but very elusive goldfish that could be compared to the highest caliber of earthly maritime delicacies. Not only did each bite come with a surge of pleasure, running through the body, it also improved water dragon breath, the shimmer of their scales and also counter acted horn erosion. It was the ultimate food – and so of course Elma wanted it. But her other worldly funds were harshly limited.

 _I haven't gotten paid for my harmony duties in a while because I haven't brought Tohru back yet. I can't spend nearly as much as this… this greedy sawed off thumb demands!_ "This is highway robbery! Fifty-two gold for ten finds? I can get them for half of that in the capital!"

"Fifty!" The lilt, a veteran fisherman with a long beard, nearly gray fur and a strangely shaped round head from diving hundreds of thousands of times, was not giving in so quickly.

"Twenty-eight!"

"Forty-eight!"

Their bartering continued until they were both out of breath. "F-Fine… thirty-four gold and twelve silver, not a single coin more." Elma still had other duties to attend to. _I'm probably already late to meeting Lucoa. Being late when I was the one that pressed for us to go out and on a date in Velvelfall…_ "Agreed?"

"You drive some bargain, lady." The Lilt bagged up ten finds and exchanged them for the coins that Elma procured from her leather coin purse. Taking the bag, made from paper, Elma immediately ran off without actually running.

Walking around in her usual clothes, purple kimono, black leotard and sandals, was a welcome change for once.

To her right, a sale on fresh cheese made from mofufurun sheep milk. To her left, a new product, a special breed of demi-cockatrice and their eggs. But she had already gone through much of her budget for the entire weekend within the first three hours, but what was a girl to do when confronted with such delicacies?

 _Going to the culinary district was a mistake… ah, they have grilled kraken over there… and taurus maxwell beef stew over there! Ah… lunar onions… I completely forgot that they have good food in this world too._ _It's all way too expensive compared to the good human food though! I could have my salary of ten years and not be able to eat even once at all of these places!_ Making it out of the culinary district in one piece not because of her willpower but because of heavily damaged budget, Elma found Lucoa already waiting by the seven layer fountain. _She changed her clothes_.

Lucoa had switched sweater and jeans for a Elsium dress, which was basically a Qi Pao with a lower cut that reached all the way to the ankles but provided ample freedom for the legs should the need arise. The one she wore really squeezed down on her breasts and stomach – without the obfuscating effect of the sweater, the ridiculous chest to waist ratio was attracting a lot of hungry eyes that Lucoa was either completely oblivious to or ignored flawlessly. The Elsium dress was made complete with Elsium combat shoes, half Qi Pao shoes and half high heels. Lucoa picked a version that didn't include decorative bindings reaching just below the knee. Both the dress and the shoes were a mix of eighty percent black and twenty percent gold, with a simple Aztec motive on the back and front.

Elma suddenly felt extremely under dressed for their date and vanished into a side alley between two shops. _What do I wear? If she's wearing something from Elsium… wait, what other countries were even near there? The Ygdarish Warrior race? They're only into armor. I shouldn't pick something that makes me compete with her sexiness, I can't win there anyway. So something refined? But her dress is sexy and simple at the same time, so maybe… maybe… ugh! This is a lot harder than deciding what to eat!_

Adjusting her scales, Elma went with something practical – she was going to walk around a lot and probably spend a lot of time out in the blazing sun, so she wanted something that covered a bit of skin. The resulting choice was the current trend from Neo Novus Atlanti – deep blue high heels that had decorative clasps extending halfway to the knee – a long black shirt with a diamond cutout on the stomach and a thin sky blue jacket above the shirt, the jacket made from the rough skin off of the back of the Giga Horn beast – half-pants that sat tight and provided adequate sun cover without concealing too much of her legs, also in blue, matching the jacket.

Lucoa saw Elma, completely changed, approach from the distance but kept sitting by the fountain side, enjoying the cool air – it was almost forty degrees out in the sun and while it was an average day for the Lilts and Velvelfall, most other creatures in the world found that to be rather uncomfortable. "My, you look fantastic Elma," was the first thing that Lucoa said to her.

"You look super sexy. I'm a little jealous." _I'm glad that the outfit pushes her breasts up a bit. It doesn't make them look any smaller, but it keeps them from bouncing so much._ "Where do you want to go first?"

"I see you already went to the culinary district." Lucoa didn't try to pry into what Elma had bought. "It has quite a peculiar smell."

"Ah." _I totally forgot that these fins have a really stringent smell for anyone that isn't a water serpent or used to salt water environments_ "I can leave them at our room- no, then the whole room will smell like them… but I don't just wanna wolf them down..."

Because of a precious accident, Lucoa put her palm against Elma's horn and made sure it wouldn't poke her during her next action. Despite being in broad daylight, for everyone to see, the ex goddess proceeded to just kiss Elma – and not just a quick smack but a real kiss, that was drawing attention from everyone that walked by, couple or not.

Elma looked like a fish that had been grilled over open fire when Lucoa finally retracted her tongue, their lips parted and she let go of her horn. The water serpent's legs were wobbling a little for a few seconds. "W-What?"

"I didn't say the smell bothers me. I spent a few years among the sky whales, so I know a thing or two about shutting out smells I, too." Lucoa, with her ever seemingly closed eyes, looked straight at Elma with them open. It was actually a minor camouflaging spell that made her eyes _appear_ closed when in truth they weren't. After Elma had complimented her a few times on how they were almost hypnotizing and so exotic looking, Lucoa adjusted the spell to exclude Elma so she could look at them any time she wanted – even though she was a little embarrassed about that. As far as Lucoa felt embarrassment anyway.

After moving in with Elma and being berated about the way she dresses by Kobayashi and Elma alike, she had become much less daring, picking still seductive outfits over normal ones more often than not, but even the seductive ones were usually no longer the skimpy sort. In Elma's words, more was usually simply more – more cloth was more seductive and impressive, in this case. Although Lucoa suspected that this particular wisdom was more about the size of meals and Elma just misappropriated it.

"How about we test our luck? There is a lot of lotteries in the Gambling district." Lucoa suggested and grabbed Elma's free hand and glanced at her behind. "I see you kept your cute tail out. I like it," this, she whispered to her girlfriend.

Elma was suddenly super self-conscious about her tail sticking out from under the jacket and through a hole in the half-pants' back. Before she knew it, she was wagging it back and forth a little, in rhythm with her steps.

And just as Lucoa suggested, the two of them advanced towards the Gambling district, one of three adult only districts, at a pace that made even the sloth snails of the northern mountains look speedy in comparison. A spell surrounded the district that automatically adjusted for race, species and special conditions like youth potions or plain immortality spells. Elma and Lucoa passed through without any issue.

And right by the entrance was a big lottery of lotteries. "Step closer, ladies!" A particularly excited looking Lilt, that was also particularly tall, was sitting in the booth next to a one armed bandit with seven slots. Behind the lilt, a long list of prizes. "For every five silver coins spent in the district, you get one try at the legendary one armed marauder! And behold the grand prize! The personal dimension pocket of Kong Qiu!"

The two of them just ignored the Lilt – he wasn't speaking to anyone in particular, repeating himself like a broken record, a glorified living advertisement. But they had heard him anyway.

"I invited you, so I will pay." Lucoa wasn't just saying this because it was true – she knew that Elma was, financially, in trouble in this world. Meanwhile, Lucoa had amassed quite a bit of money over the millennia. _I see she isn't even making any excuses or attempts to refuse. I love that she can be honest and doesn't put up facades anymore._ "Lottery box or Magical Cards first? I don't think I've ever told you that I like gambling."

"Lottery box. It reminds me of the human world." _I'm glad she offered to pay. The rest of my money would have been gone in an instant in this place._

Their first stop was really just a series of four booths with a large room behind the booths, housing prizes. There were thirteen kinds of results, ranging from grand prize to consolation prize – which was a complimentary Lilt confection called a Liltiltu – it was basically a manjuu stuffed with a variety of sweet berries that grew in abundance around the city.

It was one silver coin for a try and ten silver coins for eleven tries. Lucoa paid for thirty-three tries up front and paid one gold and ten silver coins for it. The lottery was through a standard lottery box the likes of which existed in tens of thousands of Japanese shopping districts – the human world did have a bit of an influence, even though nobody would ever admit to that.

Lucoa and Elma both took a booth and started turning the box. Elma won ten manjuu in a row, which was, as far as she was concerned, a very good consolation prize. Lucoa did a little better, winning two teleportation stones once, the tenth rank prize. The nine manjuu from Lucoa were vanquished by Elma with the same speed and power a high ranking and experienced adventurer would defeat the common slime.

The final ten were split evenly by the two. Elma got another five manjuu, one of which she saved for later, while Lucoa got four manjuu and scored something rare – the third rank prize, winged sandals, allowing the user free flight. A rare item that sold for as much as five hundred gold coins; but totally useless to dragons that could fly to begin with. Receiving six tickets for the one armed marauder, the two bid the lottery box goodbye and headed across the street to the next shop.

This was completely different from a simple lottery. There were a few dozen people scattered around the immensely large room. The building was four times the size inside than it was outside and it was already fairly large on the outside. A twenty-five on twenty-five meter area surrounded by an iron cage, it looked like there would be a fight. But far to the contrary, the space within the cage was actually filled with cards, numbered from one to one-thousand. What was on the other side of each card was randomized with each round and about seventy-five percent of the cards were duds. The grand prize was a fantastical one in one-thousand chance every attempt.

"This looks like you do a lot better with some kind of system." Elma looked around for some kind of rule board and found one hanging just by the wall near the entrance. The somewhat bad lighting conditions made it just a little bit difficult to read. "Each round has a ten minute betting period with a maximum of five hundred numbers being bet on. Oh, I guess that's so they don't just get a thousand people in here. Every player can only bet on one card. That makes sense too."

Lucoa continued to read from there. "Bets can be made with one silver, five silver or ten silver. Huh? But isn't the prize based on the card you bet on? Oh. A winning card contains three types of prizes, corresponding to the amount it was bet on. A card that has been bet on by someone else can not be bet on unless the first bet was one silver or five silver and the next bet exceeds that."

Elma felt a bit out of her depth there. "This is pretty complicated for a game of chance."

"What's your lucky number?" Lucoa was going to just bet on that.

"399." Elma answered without thinking. "That's how old I was when I was promoted to an active agent of the faction!" _Through sheer luck. They messed up the hand writing on the papers and I was promoted instead of Elma. Sorry Elma!_

"Here." Handing Elma ten silver coins, Lucoa dragged her towards the booth were one would place their bets. A single Lilt, looking a bit bored with himself, was sitting there. "I would like to bet on card 399. She would like to bet on card 822. Both ten silver."

"Flip over in 4 minutes," the Lilt informed them, relaying their bet to the solitary Lilt inside the cage that now hastily ran around and marked the corresponding cards.

"Is 822 your lucky number?" Elma was a little curious about that now.

"It's how often we kissed." Lucoa waited for that to sink in and then it hit Elma. _She is so cute when she's struggling for words._ _Of course I didn't count how often we kissed, and it probably hasn't been quite that many but it is a nice number._ Watching Elma struggle for almost a full minute and not manage anything better than stammering, Lucoa released her from her suffering. "I haven't been to the gambling district since it was wrecked, a hundred and thirty years ago."

"It was wrecked?" Elma was not exactly a history buff.

"The Cloud King and one of the great six from the harmony faction got into a fight after drinking too much and well, the Cloud King quite literally crash landed on the district. That was a bit of a wake up call. The harmony faction considered themselves responsible so they paid for the rebuilding effort."

"Oh. So that's why my salary is so low."

 _I don't think that's the reason._ "You are the breadwinner between us two in the human world though."

Elma looked proud of herself. "I even got praised for working diligently the other day."

"By that scary lead programmer at Eaglejump?"

"How'd you know?!"

"You looked really proud of it."

"I worked over my break because I got there late because I got distracted by a new pretzel shop on my way there from the train..." _I wish I could afford driving lessons and maybe a small bike, but… parking is a nightmare, especially near our building. And gasoline is expensive, maintenance is expensive and I would get wet when it rains and…_

"They didn't notice?"

"I wasn't that late!"

"So every time you come home late because you missed the train, is that because you got distracted by some kind of food shop?"

"N-No!"

"Really?"

"Not always!"

"So it happens sometimes?"

"Sometimes. Yeah." Elma looked a lot less proud now.

Before Lucoa could tease her any more, the final call for betting was made. "We haven't looked at the prizes yet. Should we check?" _I suppose I teased her quite enough for now._

"We probably won't win anything. I hope they give out something to eat as a consolation prize though." Elma adjusted her jacket, feeling a little out of place still. She didn't really wear clothes like this, not usually. "How did you come up with that outfit choice?"

"I went to the capital a few days ago, while you were at work, and looked at the current fashion."

"So Elsium dresses are a trend now?"

"No."

"Hm?" Elma couldn't quite follow. "So why then?"

"The current trends are terrible." Lucoa said that with such a genuine smile that somewhere far away, in the capital city, a number of famous designers felt like someone stepped on their shadow. "Do you think I should wear this back home sometimes?"

"That might be a bit much for Japan… Your sweater look already turns heads, this would probably cause traffic accidents. But if you're just going to wear it at home, that would be nice."

And finally it was time for the cards to be turned over. And just as they expected, they hit duds – everyone did. There was no consolation prize there and Lucoa didn't like the waiting periods. "Let's go."

=== Curses can be a Blessing too (1) ===

Standing on a grassy plain that seemed to extend endlessly in every direction with neigh a tree or rock or anything in the distance, Elma enjoyed the sun there. It was almost _politely_ warm – the perfect temperature. The grass was only about three centimeters high as well – the perfect height to lay down in and not enough to be an issue when walking. Other than the grass and a cloudless sky with an unmoving sun, there really was nothing. "I wonder if it's possible to live in here."

Lucoa walked around for a bit, still wearing the Elsium dress from earlier. "This is amazingly well made. I wonder how long it has been since someone used it."

"Probably a long time. What are you gonna do with it? Do you think food spoils in here?"

"It's a pocket dimension, so time moves at the same speed in here as it does everywhere else. I do think we could use it for storage – not that we actually have enough things in our apartment to warrant such a thing."

"Are you gonna sell it?" Elma sat down in the grass and was glad she had gone with a bit of an airy outfit. There was no wind, so just staying in the sun got pretty warm now.

Lucoa walked around a little more, created a small rock from her powers and throwing them pretty hard into the distance, checking how far the dimension extended. The rock just hit something solid but invisible about a hundred to hundred and fifty meters out. _That is pretty big. I guess now is as good a time as any to talk to her about this._ Sitting down next to her girlfriend, Lucoa leaned against her, shoulder to shoulder."Would you mind if I started a job of my own?"

"A human world job?"

"Partially. It's been a long time, but in the past I used to be fairly good at alchemy – potions, pills and such. I would sell only to registered magicians and people from our world, whether they live in the human world or not. I know you would be in trouble if your girlfriend started messing with humans by selling magical things. And I want to know what you think about this in general before I decide."

"You're bored at home, right? You're not like Tohru, who is content improving her maid skills."

"I admit it can get a little boring whenever you're at work." Lucoa reconsidered her statement almost immediately. "Quite boring."

"You're gonna use this place as a shop then?"

"It's a little difficult to move this and there will be dangerous things I have to keep where I make the potions, so I'd rather not have strangers around then. I think I would have them either come pick up things or deliver them."

"Want me to help out with delivering then?"

"No." Lucoa turned to the side and prodded Elma's cheeks. "You're working hard at your company and this is more going to be my hobby than anything else. I can use portal magic, too, so don't worry. Unless you're worried about gaining weight."

" **I'm not**!" Elma denied it so strongly that she realized what kind of suspicion she cast on herself. "Maybe a little."

"I read in a magazine that sex actually uses up a lot of calories." _Oh my oh my._ _That might have been a bit too direct for Elma. I guess she's still young compared to me._ "I'll have to move a lot of furniture in here for it to function as a shop. I would be glad to have help with that."

"Do you have a lot of furniture stashed away somewhere?" Elma focused on furniture to avoid thinking about sex for at least the next few minutes.

"I'll have to buy some in the city of craftsmen. We can make that another date if you'd like." Lucoa was keen on doing as much as they could on weekends together or on any days Elma had off work. Just sitting around at home was a bit too boring for her. And the two times they tried, Elma ended up very exhausted – although Lucoa felt very satisfied after, both times.

"Crunch time starts next week so I'm not sure if I can make take the weekend off as usual. They're working with a French company to handle overseas localization for a PC version and they really want the DRM to be top notch."

"You sound like you would like to work there." _I'm happy she is enjoying her job and taking it seriously enough that she is thinking about it like this._

"I'll go back to the main office after this. I don't like going all the way to the Eaglejump office and I like working with Kobayashi-san."

"It's interesting how a single human saved Tohru, adopted Kanna and through Tohru brought us together."

"You should teach her a bit of magic sometime. She sounds like the abandoned main character of a fable without a power of her own."

"Kobayashi-san's nature is her power. She manages to attract all manner of strange events and beings." Lucoa got back on her feet. "I think I will put a fireplace in the center, over there. A few tables for open books, flasks and refinement procedures, some chairs. And a large number of shelves and chests to store things. A few bookshelves as well. There is a trader I still know from whom I can purchase some of the books I will need. My, it is a lot of fun already, planning a venture like this." Walking around as she pointed at things, Lucoa pictured the final result already.

Elma was watching from a few meters distance. "I hope you won't be too busy making potions to come to bed at night." Her voice betrayed her happy expression; she was a little worried about that happening.

"And miss cuddling?" Lucoa turned to Elma and charged her, grabbing her hands, pulling them up and smiling straight at her. "You know how much I value our nights together. You are quite literally, by the meaning, _my dearest_." Lucoa legitimately closed her eyes, grinning wide. "You are quite precious to me, and so is our time together."

Elma just opened her mouth and no words came out, only muffled noises, stammering and letter babble. Until finally, she found her courage and dignity hiding around a corner. "You just love embarrassing me."

"That is entirely the fault of how wonderfully cute you are when you are embarrassed." Lucoa let go of Elma's hands and turned around, taking a deep breath of the warm air, rich with the smell of grass. "Where do you want to go to eat dinner?"

"Can we go back to the human world for that? There is a new barbeque place that just opened two weeks ago and I- we haven't had a chance to go! They have a buffet option right now that they won't keep after the first month!"

"Your stomach is more insatiable than the hoarding drive of any dragon I have ever met. But I find that endearing. Shall we go then?" Lucoa stepped back, cleared her throat and spoke the magic words. "Kong Qiu, my friend." A sliding door, ancient and oriental looking, appeared before her. It was the gateway that transported them back to their anchoring point; the point in space where they had entered from.

Stepping through the door, the two of them were back in Velvelfall, just short of the park area in the northern part of the town. Nobody looked twice at two women appearing through a sliding door out of nowhere in public – the Lilts were fairly easygoing about magic that wasn't violent. "Kong Qiu, your wisdom travels with me." Lucoa felt an intense strain on her mind right after. _I see… moving the pocket dimension requires a lot of magical power. If anyone else had won this, they would have been unable to move it and most likely relinquished ownership of it to the Lilts. Craft little people._ "Shall we go home then?" _I want to put this pocket dimension down as soon as I can._

Elma herself couldn't move from world to world on her own, but Lucoa had no problem opening a portal. Unlike Tohru, she could be fairly specific about where it led to as well. It just wasn't very fun to cut out the journey to the goal, so most of the time she just walked.

But this time she created a portal that directly led back into their apartment back home. Elma went through first, Lucoa followed and the portal closed behind her. "Kong Qiu, spread your wisdom." Lucoa settled the pocket dimension right inside their apartment.

While Elma checked their answering machine, there were two missed calls from Eaglejump, Lucoa sat down and contemplated that at some point, she might want to invest in regular clothing. Of course, washing them, finding them in the right size and everything was a bother, but after hearing from Tohru how much fun it could be to wear them, she wanted to try it for herself. But not tonight. "Did they call you to work?"

"No, just Ahagon calling to tell me that they moved up a meeting and I need to bring a few documents. And then calling again to make sure I got the first message and telling me to ignore any calls from the director." Elma deleted both messages with a few button presses. _I'm so technologically advanced now!_ "We should hurry, my network tells me that they put out the best meat between six and eight!"

Lucoa looked at her with an amused grin. "Your network?"

"The local gourmet circle. I talk to them online."

"My, human technology is quite a thing." Lucoa was not too interested in computers, although she did enjoy watching TV and was interested in owning a cellphone.

Elma dismissed that nation right out of the gate. "You read too many books. Now, come on, if we go now, we can make the six forty-five train and be there at seven. It'll be prime time!"

=== Curses can be a Blessing too (2) ===

Putting down the fourth of the large wooden tables, Elma stretched and immediately her stomach growled. "That was the last one." _Thank the gods I was born a dragon. Carrying this stuff around as a human would break my back._ "Lucoa?" Looking around, Elma couldn't see her girlfriend anywhere on the grassy meadow that they had just turned into an open air apothecary. "Lucoa!"

"Back here." A voice, slightly muffled, came from behind one of the larger book shelves. She had splurged quite a bit and bought a very large number of reference and work books – over three hundred in total, filling eight shelves worth and leaving the most frequently used ones on the working tables.

Elma peeked around the corner of the shelf and found Lucoa balancing a large number of books on her chest, pressed against the wooden frame. The shelves were double sided, allowing each to hold twice as many books. "Can you get the _Advanced studies of the Kupoto Moogilitis_ from the ground? I dropped it and it's supposed to go into the second row from the top."

"Sure." Picking up a thick book with a red cover, thick enough to be a formidable weapon, Elma put it where it belonged and then sat down right there on the floor. "I finished getting all the furniture. How about lunch break?" Elma was still guided by her stomach and yet – she could have eaten lunch on her own at any time and she didn't. She wanted to eat with Lucoa.

"Is it already that late?" Lucoa realized she had no regular clock or anything in this place and she would definitely need one. "Just let me put these away; there." Freeing up her hands, and chest, Lucoa held out her hand to Elma. "Don't sit in the grass, it'll cause a stain."

"This won't, these are my scales." Wearing her working clothes-scales, for lack of better fashion sense, Elma was comfortable that way. "Where are we going for lunch? There is-"

"I was thinking of making something here." Lucoa quickly cut her off before she could get all too excited about lunch somewhere else. "You didn't already eat the ingredients on the table, right?"

"How rude! I would never eat food that isn't mine." Taking Lucoa's hand now, Elma got back on her feet and let out her tail and horn – they had gotten in the way when she was moving furniture. "What are you gonna make?"

"I was thinking of something simple, so it doesn't weight us down. We still have to put up a roof and some walls, lights and a few other things, like protection circles, although I will be handling those on my own."

"A roof and walls?" Elma couldn't get very excited over a lunch that was so mysterious so she focused on something else. "Do you think it's gonna rain in here?"

Lucoa just smiled and within seconds, Elma felt drips of water come down. "You're **making** that happen." Elma didn't look the slightest bit impressed. "Isn't it pointless to put up a roof if you can just keep it sunny?"

"Some medicine needs specific humidity or can only be made at night or during a storm."

"Oh. You mean like the Invigorating Potion of Neptunus?" Elma was not an alchemy buff but she knew a thing or two. "The older water serpents at the harmony faction always order that." _Although I don't know what it does. But I do know the alchemists always tell me that the earliest order is after the next rainstorm._

"I'm surprised you know about a potion that enhances sexual vigor." Lucoa's expression went from neutral smile to highly amused smile after realizing, through Elma's expression, that she **didn't** know what the potion did. "I suppose old men will be old men no matter what race."

"I am **never** doing errands for those old farts again!" Elma wiped her already clean hands on her vest, as if they were dirtied by delivering those potions.

"You're so cute when you are embarrassed."

"I'm disgusted!"

"Not many dragons can say about themselves that they look cute when they are disgusted with something."

"Jeez, take me seriously!" Elma clenched her fists and shook them in front of her chest. Trying to look as menacing as possible by squinting, frowning and curling her lips all at the same time, Elma got quite the reaction out of Lucoa.

Covering her mouth with one hand and covering her stomach with another, Lucoa could just barely remain standing, internally shaking with laughter at the sight of Elma trying to look upset. "M-My how frightening."

Elma immediately stopped her attempt when she saw just how hard Lucoa was trying not to laugh. "Feathered serpents are really rude."

"I-I apologize." Lucoa was lightly chuckling now. "It is one of your finer qualities that you have a very cute and pleasant face. I could look at it for a thousand years and not become sick of it."

"That's a bit obsessive." Elma's stomach growled again. "Are you sure we can't go somewhere to eat? It's.. it's not that I don't trust your cooking skill! But there's a sandwich place nearby that has a new special and-"

 _Now that she's talking about it, she'll be disappointed if we don't go. I can just put what I bought for lunch into the fridge for later. There is still a lot of work to do, so I'm sure we'll have time for a second lunch or an afternoon snack. Elma is always hungry anyway._ "We are only going for lunch."

"A dragon lunch!"

"Yes, yes, a dragon lunch." Watching Elma spin on the spot and head towards the door, which was still standing freely on the ground in its own frame, Lucoa felt glad that she had decided to do this. Not become Elma's girlfriend, that was long since beyond doubt and any question. _It's been a long time since I put down roots anywhere. I'm glad it's here, with her. And doing all of this makes me realize how much I missed having responsibilities. Humanity no longer accepts gods to guide them, but with this I can still make a difference._ "Elma, wait for me." Hurrying after her girlfriend after being left behind, Lucoa slid open the door and stepped out – into their living room. The pocket dimension was connected to a closet. Elma was now registered as co-owner, so she could come and go whenever she wanted.

"Do you think I should ask the harmony faction to advertise your shop for our people on this side of things?" _Should I switch clothes? Hm, no. If I go like this it will look like I'm an office worker on break. I don't want any attention when I'm eating._ "I'm good to go."

"Maybe wait for a few days so I can create a stock of product first. And I think we should let Tohru, Kanna and Fafnir have the first orders. They're our closest friends out here." Lucoa had no intention of changing clothes. Sweater and jeans was fine for basically every occasion – except going on dates and receiving customers. "I'll have to go to the other world tomorrow and get some ingredients for permanent magical applications like a direct-to-home shipping portal. It won't do trying to transport sometimes dangerous potions through the human world."

Elma was already by the door, waiting. "The harmony faction is gonna appreciate that. We can't exactly come down on you with any rules or such because you're a goddess that originally hails from this world, but still, I'm glad you're looking out for me."

 _She is really cute in thinking I am doing it for her. But if I offer shipping like that, even though it'll cost me a bit up front, I will get more customers. They will all be accustomed to mail and phone orders so-_ "Elma, can you order things over the internet?"

"Hm, sure? It's not much different from mail or phone ordering things. Less of a hassle, too." _She's so cute when she doesn't understand technology._ Elma was blissfully unaware that, for a lot of modern things, she was just as ignorant as Lucoa was. "Do you want me to order something?"

"How do you order stuff?"

"Usually there's online shops where you can look at their products and then pay for it online and have it shipped to your address. Sometimes you can pay later, too." Leaving their apartment, Elma made two attempts to take Lucoa's hand and failed miserably both times. She wasn't embarrassed to stuff her face in public, but walking the crowded city streets with her beautiful girlfriend still invited a **lot** of stares. Thanks to her black hair and skin color, Elma could pass as a Japanese – Lucoa however was basically the stereotypical _crazy proportions foreigner woman_.

As always, Lucoa grabbed Elma's hand without hesitation; being a thousand years too old to care about humans staring at her. "If I was a dragon like you or Tohru, we could hold our tails together as well. But even like this, I could probably work on my shape-shifting abilities a little to make that happen."

"Holding tails?" Elma glanced upwards and imagined it. "You perverted woman!"

"I don't understand what's perverted about it."

"Tail tips are sensitive!" Elma blushed.

Lucoa looked over her shoulder and then up ahead. "There is hardly anyone there to hear you. Why are you blushing like a young maiden?"

"That's not the point." Elma pulled on Lucoa's hand hard enough to make her sway to the side. "And what is **that** supposed to mean anyway? Like a young maiden? I'll have you know that I am definitely in the prime of my life!"

"Young maidens are girls before their prime. I remember the sacrifices the people made for me were always of a certain age."

"They did human sacrifice in your name?" Elma was not too knowledgeable about the past of the human world. Certainly not around 2000 years ago.

"Well, technically speaking. They brought them to an altar and stabbed them, like a blood sacrifice. I didn't like the idea of wasting a young life like that for no real purpose, so I showed up with thunder and pomp and spirited the girl away before she could bleed out. I couldn't return them to where they came from so I dropped them off at another tribe. I did this for a while actually, but the more I did it, the more they tried to sacrifice over every little thing and so I stopped intervening."

"That's a bit dark."

"There are some really nice humans, like Kobayashi and the human Fafnir lives with, but as a general rule, they can be quite awful."

"And you were their goddess?"

"Hm… I wonder if that makes me awful as well." _I never considered that angle before, actually_.

"Definitely not. If you tried to tell them to stop, they would just find another awful practice, right?"

"I do remember there being a number of gods up further north and to the west that encouraged sailing parties, pillaging, rape and murder on strangers."

"What's up with that?"

"There are some pretty unlikable gods out there."

"And I thought I had it tough with my supervisor making me do errands all the time. Now that I think about it, do gods ever get into fights with each other?"

"We try to avoid that as much as possible because… hmm, I suppose I'm not a goddess anymore, so I'm not bound by the pact of secrets anymore, so it's okay to tell you."

"No. I reconsidered. Don't tell me about whatever you were going to say. I don't want to end up knowing some extremely forbidden knowledge that's gonna get me into trouble."

"A wise decision." Lucoa smiled knowingly, which freaked Elma out a little.

"It's not okay to just tell whatever you were gonna tell me, right?"

"Probably not."

"You'd get in trouble with other gods?"

"Only if they find out."

"I'm good after all. I always thought of lunch when we covered the ancient war between chaos and harmony."

"The one where an entire planet was lost?"

Elma just stopped walking and looked at Lucoa like she had just revealed the truth of the universe to her. Like the universe was actually just the small area of space they knew and everything beyond it was made of fire and hostile marshmallows. "What?"

"Not that one? Was it the one that sunk Muu? The small continent I mean."

"Stop! You're ruining my worldview!" Elma wanted to cover her ears and at the same time didn't want to let go of Lucoa's hand. "How many wars were there? I only know about that one, fourteen hundred years ago."

"Oh, the one that hmmm?" Lucoa's words were blocked from coming out by Elma's hand, covering her mouth whole. _I didn't know the harmony faction dragons were so poorly educated regarding their own past. Maybe I should find some thunder-drops and explain things to Elma over a drink._

"No more horrific reveals of the past. I'm going to lose my appetite." The single greatest fear of Elma the dragon.

Pinching Elma's hand and freeing her mouth, Lucoa kept on smiling like always. "It's not good to ignore history."

"I'm not ignoring it, I am choosing not to know!" Elma took a single, decisive step forward and pulled Lucoa with her, both of them continuing to walk towards the sandwich place that Elma wanted to visit. "How do you know so much? You were always in the human world, right?"

"I was a goddess here on earth, but of course I had a lot of dealings with the other world as well. All the gods did and do. The congregation at Izumo Taisha during Kamiarizuki here in Japan for example still happens, although there are far less gods now than there were a few centuries ago."

"But you weren't a Japanese goddess."

"Gods that lived in the region I was active in interacted a lot more casually than Japanese deities do. Sometimes we would spar for fun alone and that caused large storms, earthquakes and floods. We always felt bad after that, so eventually we went somewhere else to spar."

"Were there any gods you didn't get along with?"

"Hitoha." Looking at Elma's _Oh yes, her. I know her. Who is that again_ face made Lucoa explain in more detail. "Huixtocihuatl. She was revered as a goddess governing salt and sea water. She was… not easy to get along with."

"Rather than a salty goddess, she's a sour one!"

"I think she would try to drown you if she heard that pun."

"Was there anyone you really liked then?"

"Peto." And once more, Elma's expression made her explain. "Xipe-Totec. He was one of the four rulers. I was ruling the west and he was ruling the east. He had a lot of titles and I barely remember any of them. He really liked to engage in… recreational usage of some things."

"You're telling me one of your fellow gods liked to do drugs?"

"We called it ascending back then." Lucoa's smile had turned into a grin at this point. "I might make something like that for personal use. Don't worry, I won't bring it into the apartment, I'll keep it in my workplace."

"You can make drugs yourself?"

"Medicine is nothing different."

"It's not addicting or anything, right?"

"Are you worried for me?" Lucoa pulled on Elma's arm, making her walk closer by her side. "That is really cute of you, but with our physiology, not even the honey of Ra would really be much of an addiction." _Although, psychologically, Elma is quite addicted to human cuisine. And Tohru is addicted to Kobayashi. And Fafnir… I wonder what exactly it is that he is so addicted to._

"What does it feel like?"

"It depends on whether it is smoked, breathed in, drunk or eaten. I am not particularly keen on drinking or eating these things. I am partial to smoking or breathing it in. Are you curious enough to try it sometime?"

"I am not really-"

"It gives food a truly interesting and fantastic taste afterward."

"Please tell me when you're gonna try it!"

 _So easy. I feel almost bad for taking advantage of how driven by her stomach she is. But only almost._ "We still have a long day ahead of us. And I'm glad that you are helping me out. It would be really boring, not to mention tiresome, to do it all by myself."

"I've been thinking this, but can't you just magic stuff into place?"

"I could, but it would be like a constant strain on my energy and it's nice to move your body sometimes. A bath always feel quite fantastic afterward."

"You've seen me in my real form before, right?" _Not that I really care. It's a lot more convenient to be together like this actually. Dragons don't have the best precision movement with their fingers._

"Yes. Remember that time you were terribly late for work and flew there? Perception block does not work on me. You are of course very beautiful in either form."

"That's… not what I was getting at… but thanks." Elma felt suddenly very self-conscious about the way she looked. "You know, now that you bring up my looks, people have made fun of my horn before."

"My. I hope nobody shall be quite so insensitive and foolish to do so with my present or I might have to erase them from the face of this planet in an instant." Lucoa's smile was enriched by dangerous elements and scared Elma for a moment. "But if that was not what you wanted, what then?"

"I was wondering what your true form looks like."

"You want to see?"

"If you wanna show."

"I don't mind, but I imagine it is quite different from what you would expect. I am very comfortable in my humanoid form because it takes up **considerably** less space than me as a feathered serpent."

"Are you larger than Tohru?"

"Hm, if you, Tohru, Kanna and Fafnir all got into line, my true form would still be several times as large."

"As… expected of a goddess I think?"

"A lot of us gods don't really take our true forms because they are cumbersome. Even when we fight, if we end up fighting, we rarely do. There are some exceptions, like Izanami."

"I'm glad I'm normal sized." Elma saw the funny expression that Lucoa was making. "For a water serpent I am totally normal sized!"

"You are beautifully slim. Tohru is much more unwieldy than that."

"I don't know how to feel about this anymore." Elma looked away for a few seconds and then focused on the important matter at hand. The target destination was coming into sight. "What do you wanna do after lunch?"

"We'll have to get a specific type of wood. I'll take you to the other side if you will accom-"

"I'll always come with you."

"I'm happy to hear that. We'll need laughing hardwood from the impish forest."

"I was always told to stay away from there. It's not safe, even for dragons. I don't think even the higher ups go there."

"We are not going there either. You need a special license to fell trees in the impish forest because it is so dangerous."

"What's so dangerous about it anyway?" Elma was surprised when Lucoa just averted her eyes and looked towards the other side of the street. "Did something happen to you there?"

"It's a terrible, terrible place that even the most powerful of gods avoid for good reason." Lucoa still didn't face Elma. _I can never let her learn what happened that day. I would die of shame. I'd kill her and then myself._

"So, we're getting wood. And after-" Elma's instinct kicked in and she scanned the line before the counter, the daily special, the constantly fluctuating prices for extras and the smell. Speeding up, Elma pulled Lucoa along, into the shop.

=== Curses can be a Blessing too (3) ===

Elma was completely pooped. "Even an earth dragon would be tired after all of this. I am never going to make light of carpenters again. Ever." Sitting on the roof, her legs over the edge, Elma fell backwards, the eternal noon sun burning down on her. _I'm gonna turn into fried and salted sea serpent if I don't get off this roof. But I'm so tired._

"Shut your trap, Elma!" Tohru was down below, flat in the grass, swiping the sweat from her forehead. Just this once, and only because it was really hot and tiring, she had switched from a maid outfit to something more simple – a white sleeveless shirt that had a green dragon motive on the back, complete with half pants that let air circulate freely. "I really, really, **really** , hate working with haha wood!" She had barely said that when she started to chuckled, then giggle and finally break out into laughter. It was infectious.

Elma was rolling around on the roof, inside the small house was Lucoa, who was holding on to a table, trying to suppress the laughter. And from the other side of where Tohru was came a horribly menacing laughter that belonged to Fafnir. Kanna, Kobayashi and Takiya were not too far away but safe from the effects of the laughing wood. Because Kanna was uniquely unsuited to the hard work that made Lucoa ask Fafnir and Tohru for help, and Kobayashi was far more unsuited still because she was human,

"They got infected again." Kobayashi looked to Kanna, who picked up a large paper fan. "Can you handle Tohru? She is sort of out of control like this."

"Leave it to me!" Kanna was oddly pumped for her duties.

Laughing Hardwood was a very peculiar substance to work with. It not only resisted all kinds of magic and fire, but it also nullified almost all magical or otherworldly powers around it. And to top it off, it was **really** really hard to work with because it frequently caused everyone that breathed in the fumes it gave off when being worked on to break out into laughing fits. All those factors together made it a huge bother to build a small one floor room out of it – usually, something like that would cost the other world equivalent of twenty to a hundred million yen.

"There." Kobayashi was extremely unenthusiastic about slapping Fafnir, laughing like a crazed madman, in the back of his head with an oversized paper fan. It didn't need to be a paper fan specifically but those were the only affordable alternative.

With the slap, Fafnir calmed down, panting, breathing heavily, and looked both tired and annoyed. "You have my thanks… to think I would be so easily affected. Accursed, detestable laughing wood…!" With his eyes glowing red and his hand about to light up like a light house, Fafnir made for quite the image.

"Uh. Yeah. Okay." Kobayashi quickly made her exit and entered the building, where she found Lucoa kneeling on the floor, laughing so hard but quietly that she looked like she was about to choke. "There." Slapping her on the top of her head, Lucoa snapped out of it.

"T-Thank you, Kobayashi-san… it was starting to hurt." Lucoa's face was red not from embarrassment but the strenuous laughing.

"I'm just glad I don't get infected by this." _And I can't hear Tohru anymore. That means that deep voice laughter is Elma._ "I'll go and free Elma before it infects everyone again."

"P-Please do."

 _This is the seventh time now. We've been here for hours. It must be dark outside by now. I kinda wish the sun would go away. I feel like an over baked cookie. Well, Lucoa is providing drinks… I kinda want sake now._ Climbing up a ladder to the roof, Kobayashi could already see Elma rolling around, her face so red that it looked like her head might explode any second. _From what Lucoa said, that's something that can actually happen. The wood is so dangerous because anyone with magic energy can get infected. Except Kanna it seems. And unless someone makes you snap out of it, you will laugh yourself to death._ "There."

Elma was three-quarters on her way to a funny death when Kobayashi finally rescued her. She couldn't even say anything, just pant and gasp for air. "But this is some dangerous material. Why is Lucoa building a place out of this?"

"It's required for the really powerful potions." Lucoa had come up the ladder as well. Excluding their elevated strength, which was not quite superhuman anymore around this wood, they had very little in the way of magical powers left. "A potion that reverses immortality will kill anything within a thousand meter radius if it isn't made surrounded by laughing wood. A salve that is used to treat the blackening death causes erosion of the mind unless it is surrounded by laughing wood. And there are lots of magical ingredients that are dangerous if they're not in a magic dampening environment."

"What a dangerous job." Kobayashi shouldered the paper fan like an oversized sword.

"That is what makes it interesting." Kneeling next to Elma, Lucoa gently slapped her girlfriend's cheek a few times. "It's snack time."

Elma rose from the almost-dead like someone had injected her with pure adrenaline. Just two minutes later they were all there, about thirty meters out from the house or shack or hut or whatever Lucoa would eventually settle on calling it. Elma was happily stuffing her face and competing with Tohru over who could fit more oversized cup cakes into their mouth.

"Why did you decide to start a business?" Kobayashi was enjoying some alcoholic drink she couldn't even read the name of, much less pronounce. When Lucoa had said it, it sounded like a growling demon from the depths of hell had possessed her. In a manga her entire speech bubble would have been a white scribble on black background.

"Elma really seems to like her job and is fitting into society well, and as her partner I want to be able to share that with her."

"So what kinda stuff are you gonna make? I hope you're not planning on just selling these online." Kobayashi took another sip from the drink and felt like she had swallowed one of the lesser hells. _What's **in** this stuff? Distilled jet engine fuel?_

"A lot of things. I'll be busy over the next few days, making mostly normal potions, powders, salves and such. After that I'll take requests and make things on demand."

Glancing at Tohru and Elma, the two of them looked kind of bloated now, Kobayashi lowered her voice. "You think you can make a potion that makes my breasts grow?"

"There is definitely a potion like that out there, but wouldn't people in your life find it weird if you were suddenly the same size as Tohru?"

"The same size as Tohru?"

"Humans are very sensitive to magical potions and such. Even the smallest effective dosage would probably be that much."

"Never mind then. My shoulders would kill me. My lower back would kill me even more than it does now and- Do you have anything to relieve that?"

"I am not familiar with human physiology but we could always try a potent healing potion. The worst that can happen with those is that they act like one of those drinks… what's their name? Power drinks?"

"Energy drinks?"

"Yes. That was the name."

"Hm… how much does a healing potion come to?"

"I was not really thinking about selling to humans or for standard currency, but if I think about it…. Maybe two or three hundred?"

"Yen?"

"Oh, two or three hundred thousand yen."

Kobayashi slowly, very slowly, averted her eyes. "I think I'll have to live with my back pain."

"Is… is that a lot of money? I was calculating it up from the food that Elma always buys and the rent."

"That's pretty expensive. You can buy a used car from three to four hundred thousand yen."

"Oh my..."

"Kobayashi… Tohru-sama and Elma are about to explode." Kanna, with a cup cake in her hand, was tugging on Kobayashi's shirt and pointing to the two dragons, lying flat on their back, with stomachs as round as oversized beach balls.

"Why do those two always get into fights? Tohru! No more eating! I don't care if you have to admit a loss or anything! If you barf on the floor, you're cleaning it up!" _Sometimes it feels like I am dealing with a teenager and not an adult._

"Our partners can be quite a handful." Lucoa could relate to Kobayashi in that regard. "Have things been going alright with Tohru?"

"Hm… so-so, I think. It's still hard for me to actually behave like a couple. I work all day and there's not really much difference in the evenings because I'm dead tired then. We do… some couple stuff on the weekends."

"Tohru is not being pushy? That surprises me."

"Yeah, she's trying hard. I can tell because she slips up a lot. Sometimes I let her get away with it now because I know I'm being a bit of a prude. Like when she wants to get into the bath with me."

"Our bath is a little too small for both of us to get in at the same time. If I was a little shorter and thinner, perhaps then… well, no use thinking about it."

 _I think the issue is less your waist and more those oversized melons of yours! Share some, goddammit!_ "Is there anything left to do? It looks pretty sturdy from here."

"It'll have to dry out over the next twelve hours. But the work is all done. I'm very thankful for all your help." Lucoa raised her voice for the last part.

"L-Lucoa..." Tohru sounded like she had drank empty a lake. "I've… got an order..."

"By the time she finished making dragon stomach medicine you'll be back to normal." Kobayashi couldn't believe that Tohru always let herself get roped into Elma's nonsense after she was bragging how annoying and childish Elma was.

"No… I think those cup cakes… they're like rocks..." Tohru burped and it smelled strongly like sulfur.

"You have no one to blame but yourself." Patting Tohru's head, Kobayashi let her cling to her, despite the sulfur smell.

"Lu...coa..." Elma came crawling after Tohru, only getting as far as resting her head on Lucoa's lap before she too burped and immediately fell asleep.

"Are **all** dragons like this?" Kobayashi kept patting Tohru's head, who wanted to enthusiastically wag her tail but was too bloated. "And did they seriously eat all the cup cakes?"

"It looks that way. I would love to invite you all for dinner, but with these two as they are… and it looks like Fafnir and your human friend have already left."

"You've become a really respectable person after you were… relieved of your position as a familiar."

Lucoa smiled awkwardly at that. _After the incident that ended up costing me my deity status, that is the second most embarrassing thing in my life._ "I would appreciate it if you didn't bring that up."

"Ah. My bad. But I do have a much better opinion of you now."

"I appreciate that, but please, could we not talk about this?"

"But really, wood that makes you laugh yourself to death? The other world is a lot more dangerous than Tohru told me."

"The world is big. Even in the human world, you have great deserts, frozen wastes, locations that have permanent night for six months every year. Not to mention that not every country is as peaceful as Japan."

"It usually doesn't really feel like it, but you've been around for a very long time, right?"

"From before the big religions your people believe in came to be."

"What did you even **do** after the Aztec people went away? I have to admit, I don't actually know what civilization looked like on the American continents centuries ago."

"I fear it would take quite a long time to talk about my life at length. I wasn't always around in this world, especially after the people that worshiped me died out. It's actually a very complicated thing, being a goddess. In some ways it isn't at all a bad thing that I'm not… a goddess… anymore..." Lucoa realized what she was talking about and just wanted to change the topic now. "So-"

"Sorry, but let me stop you there." Kobayashi had checked her wrist watch. "It's past eight and I need to get Kanna into bed. I also need to take this gluttonous dragon, this gluttogon, back home so she can asleep off her sugar shock."

"But I haven't really paid all of you for your help!"

"I'm sure there'll be another chance." Helping Tohru stand, Kobayashi headed towards the extremely tiny shack that stood opposite the shop – the door to Lucoa's closet. "It was fun helping out. Tell Elma I'm looking forward to seeing her back at work soon."

The family of three left, leaving behind only Lucoa and Elma. "Why did you start competing with Tohru? And over eating miniature giant space cup cakes, no less." She knew she would receive no answer – Elma was still fast asleep. Patting Elma's head, Lucoa focused on the pocket dimension for a moment and the sun raced towards the far horizon, bathing the small world into perpetual twilight. "This is the first time in over a millennium that I possess such close friends. I am grateful to them of course, but I fear they will go their own ways after Kobayashi dies in sixty to seventy years. But you will be by my side for much longer than that, won't you, Elma?"

And as if to show her affection, whilst still asleep, Elma rolled over, mumbled and smiled wide. "Yes… yes… as much as I can..."

=== Order seconds? ===


End file.
